I went on an easy mile and a half warm up with Maryam a little bit before her race, and was curious as to what her race strategy was. "The thing I think about the most while racing," she began, "is formulating all kinds of excuses in my head, so that if I finish and am not particularly pleased with my race, I'll be ready with something to blame my bad performance on. I'm going to tell myself to suck it up, that I can't make up any excuses for myself.
I'm here, and this is it, no excuses." I nodded and kept running. "You know, after four years of racing and searching for a motto that will stick with me while I'm running, you've just summed up cross country for me. Thanks," I remarked. Maryam took her words to heart. I made sure that when I saw her out on course, I reminded her, no excuses. Possibly because of those two words (oh, and a whole heck of a lot of dedicated training on her part), she not only took nearly a minute off of her previous 5k time (running a 21:21), but also split new mile and two mile PR's. You go girl! One of the first things that my mom commented on after my race was how she found my attitude right before I entered the starting corral astonishing. She commented on how calm I was, considering that my race was to start less than thirty minutes from then. "I was surprised to see that your hands weren't shaking while you were twisting your racing chips into place." To be honest, I was in the zone, and just thinking those two words to myself. No excuses. During the race, I was more aware of what place I was in (27th by the first mile and 25th by mile two) than what my splits were. I definitely felt like a target that everyone behind me was aiming for while holding the 25th spot. It was quite reassuring when I finally passed the girl ahead of me, as all eyes shifted on her back.
Rounding the last corner to the straight away, I was still in 24th. I glanced up at the clock, was completely shocked at the time, and kicked myself up into a higher gear. I clocked in at a 19:44 (my previous LPR was a 20:19 set back in my junior year), and ended up 23rd. Top 25 earn All-American Status. In my last high school cross country race ever, I accomplished my two ultimate high school goals that I'd promised myself I would achieve way back in my freshman year. Break 20, and have my picture join my brother's on the cafeteria wall at school (at Mt. Blue, all of the All-American athletes from every sport have a framed photo on the wall). My next "ultimate goal" is to eventually beat my mom's best 5k time, 18:58. 46 seconds to go. Now that it is less than a minute away, the goal seems a lot more attainable. Sully Jackson also raced, and ended up besting his previous LPR by two seconds. Whoot! The Awards ceremony was incredibly long, but at the end we were able to get our pictures take with Zola Budd and Amy Yoder Begley, and get them to sign our race numbers. During the free time that we had until our returning flight, we rented a car (my mom surprised us with a red Mustang convertible, she's the coolest) and went cruising around Myrtle Beach. Let it be known that Maryam and I went swimming in the ocean on December 12. And who cares that it was 46 degrees out, it was still in December :P
We said we were going to do it, so we had to..
Loving the car :)
Not that this post needs anything else, but I felt the need to point out that both Maryam and I have battle wounds on our extended legs in our running pictures; she has a bruise shaped like a star, and I have a scar from a ski pole.
KKNW, Addie
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