And the Fall Mania Begins

Whew! I always thought seniors were just whining when they complained about how crazy the fall of their last year was, but now I'm experiencing it and whining just as much. College applications are kind of fun and super time consuming, so along with schoolwork I haven't had a lot of blog time.
Here is an update of the team in the last month:

Mid-August:
We took our annual team trip to Acadia National Park, which is great because we all get to bond and run together before the season really starts. The week included an afternoon at Sandy Beach, a lot of boys talking in Batman voices, and running up a mountain. Shout-out to the Mount Desert Island team for guiding us up and down Dorr Mountain. I asked the MDI girl I was running with "so how many times do you do this...like once or twice a season?" She answered "umm... like a couple times a week in preseason." I'm super impressed.

Once we got back we almost immediately had the Scot Laliberte invitational, which is always a lot of fun and really intimidating because there are so many people there for the first meet of the season. The boys team (which is looking especially strong this year) placed 3 in the top ten varsity and came out second overall. Combined Mt. Blue was 5th overall.

Late-August-September
I wasn't at our home meet unfortunately, but the girls got second to Messalonskee and the boys won their races. Last week was our race at Lawrence, where I discovered the awful experience that is dehydration during a race. The Lawrence trainer was really nice and stayed with me as a drank 3 water bottles in 15 minutes. Friday was our race at Leavitt, which is possibly my favorite course in the state. The girls got 4th (only 4 points away from first, which meant that there was a crazy 3-way tie between the other girls teams) and the boys won.

I'm really impressed with how positive everyone on both teams is being, more than any other year that I've been here. We lost quite a few senior girls last year, but our returning girls are really stepping up to the plate, and I'm excited to see what we can do at the bigger meets.

I'll try to post weekly from now on.

KKNW,

Maryam

BK and Anja

all of the tourists clap when the sun goes down, but I have to admit that the top of Cadillac is beautiful despite all of the people.

Our little family <3 br="br">

And the Season Begins (almost)

XC is one of the few sports where I have no idea when the season actually "starts." I usually begin base mileage two weeks after track has ended while I know some people who can amazingly come in to preseason without any summer mileage and still compete well. This has been a weird summer for me, because instead of going into summer with a "35 miles per week, wooohh!!!" mentality, it was more of me crossing my fingers and hoping that I would stop being injured.

Last track season, I sadly had to stop training due to Plantar Fasciitis (lesson learned, if you go to Disney World, wear supportive shoes at all times) and after taking two months off, I've been slowly building up  my mileage again. This has been my first real running injury, and it has made me realize how much running affects my mood, sleep and time management skills.

That being said, I'm super excited for preseason to start next week. We have some shoes to fill with Addie, Louisa and Emily all graduating last June, but I think that our returning girls have a lot of potential. Between running, college applications and school, it is going to be a busy fall, but I'm determined to continue blogging now that Addie has left us to be with the love of her life, Bates. Once preseason starts I'll have a lot more to write about, but until then....

KKNW,

Maryam

The Final Installment.

How do you simply end a routine that has been consistent in your life for years? I'm at a loss of a better introduction for my final blog post, because not only am I finishing with this blog and handing it off to Junior Maryam Norton for the fall of 2012, but I am also officially done with high school. Today (which happens to be my half birthday- yes, my family celebrates half birthdays so I'm 18.5  :) was states at Windham High School.. in 60 degree weather and pouring rain. I'm not sure if I prefer that kind of racing condition over the 85 we experienced for KVAC's last weekend. Anywho, we arrived and got settled down, setting up the tents and wiping off the bleachers. As we all flooded (heh water pun) onto the track for the team warm up, I made everybody huddle up and declared that we would not be starting our run until everyone was smiling. Bad moods put such a damper (wow, I'm chuckling right now at my tired self finding humor in my lame puns) on meets, so by the time Mt. Blue started their team warmup laps around the track, we were a somewhat cheerful crew. I competed in both the mile and the two mile, and I have to say it was sad watching one of my favorite events, the 4x8, happen without a MB team contending this year. In the mile my LPR is a 5:29.80, and today I think I ran a 5:30-placing 10th which was my seed. After the mile my stomach wasn't feeling too good, and soon enough the strawberries that I'd eaten a little earlier were in a splashy puddle on the wet bleachers at my feet. And for the record, throwing up is probably one of the things that scares me most. I was ever so happy to not be doing the 800 but instead having a little more recovery time until the 2. I ended up wearing patriotic arm sleeves (http://www.spandits.com/apps/webstore/products/show/2873433) because of the cold, and every time I was running around the backstretch kids from other teams would yell things like "USA! USA!" and "Goooo Team AMERICA!" It kept my spirits up :) I clocked in at a 12:15, my new LPR by 3 seconds, and was able to keep all of my remaining meal in my stomach. Also a highlight of the day was running into a dear friend from Girl's State, Natalie Dionne who jumps for Sanfod HS. This has been an incredible experience and I only hope to keep improving during my years at Bates with my new running family <3
As ever,
KKNW,
Addie

Playing Catch Up

Oh man, I haven't posted for nearly six months.. I feel like a bad blogger, meh :/ Now that my self-pity is over, I'll give a brief catch up on everything.

Here I am at XC New Englands(in black) with Tory Schuler, Sarah Mattison, Christa Fagone, Claire Stuart, Laura Picard, Erin Miseracordia, Joelle Ross (508) and Caitlin Schaffer (510) of Simsbury HS in CT, as well as Juliette Luchini of Mt. Blue. I've known several of these girls for a few years, and met others this past summer at Green Mountain Running Camp in VT. Caitlin and I will be friendly competitors this fall as she will be attending Bowdoin :D

 I've been doing a lot of cross training this past track season, which involves a strength training program called "lifting Louisa"... eh actually I just get a kick out of this picture and needed an athletic excuse to post it on my running blog :P

In April, I went on a cultural exchange to Costa Rica with a handful of other kids in my AP Spanish class and needless to say it was interesting to run there. I also had the experience to eat a termite crawling on my hand, a huuuge fish eyeball and cow tongue. Here's a picture of some of us from the trip, including my fantastic CR running partner, Steven (the blonde one).

My final excuse for posting prom pictures on a running blog is to celebrate what the running community has to offer- lifelong friendships between people from different teams :D Take my and Jay Lesser's (Falmouth XC Running/Nordic Skiing) example and try dating one of em! The nice thing is that in a relationship where both people run, no one needs to feel self conscious about watch tans and consuming snacks that contain 5000 calories on a daily basis :P

Alright, I swear I'm done with the prom pics. This season has been a good one, and once again Mt. Blue was blessed with the top-of-the-line "Road and Parking Lot" training facility, which offers a beautiful tar (yes that's not an autocorrected word for "turf") infield, as well as randomly dispersed gravel and parked cars to really keep you on your toes. Throughout the season, I dabbled in the 2 mile and went from a 12:48 to a 12:18, and I'd definitely like to see it well under 12 in the near future. In the mile I finally (and just barely) broke 5:30 with a 5:29.80 this past weekend at KVAC's at Morse. After the meet (in which it was 80+ degrees and extremely muggy), my asst. coach for next year introduced me to several athletes from other teams that will be teammates of mine at Bates next year. Then Jasmine Boyle (Brunswick), Maryam Norton (Injured-Mt. Blue), Molly Schassberger (Winslow), Mohammed Barre (Lewiston) and I made our way to the podium where we Bernie-d, Dougie-d and Call-Me-Maybe'd our hearts out, until an unfortunate event happened in which an anonymous kill-joy from EL decided it was time for the dance party to end, see pictures below :P  

Proof: The fun about to be killed

Jasmine and Moi, Movin' Like Bernie

Poop inside the loop :P

Phew, it feels good to be caught up :)
KKNW, Addie

A Note..

Dear running community (nay- family),
I miss you.
KKNW,
Addie