KVAC's 2011

My race was not stellar. In fact, it was my most poorly-run race of the season. It was caused by a mixture of things. In the end, the biggest contributor was my mental state; remembering my awful race here last year, deciding halfway through the race that I felt the same as I did here a year ago.. I cruised by the first mile in a 6:12 nestled within a pack of girls; Abby Mace, Brittany Bowman, Willow Parker, Bethany Brown and Erzsebet Nagy. After that crucial landmark they began to drop me, and I remained only a few short steps behind them, but couldn't catch up. Once girls started to pass me, I completely lost it, saying to myself "It's just another B girl, it doesn't matter." What I should have said was "OK, the next person who makes a move I'm going to go with," because with the passing B girls eventually came the passing A girls. One reason I love the sport of cross country so much is the support you receive out there from girls on other teams. Once you've been running in high school a few years, they're all so familiar; Maine doesn't have a running community, it has a close-knit running family. Katie McMahon (Bruns) caught up to me mid-hill, and encouraged me to pass one of the runners up ahead with her. Molly Schassberger (Winslow) breathed "C'mon, Ad, you got this girl.." as she went by. So I extend my thanks to everyone out there who continued to encourage me. After the race, I was given a nice pep talk by a family friend whose kids go to Maranacook, and by and by my spirits lifted. All that there is left to say, is that I truly, honestly am very thankful that I shall never race on Cony's course again; too many horrid racing memories (my first time racing that course was in 8th grade for USATF; my mom and I didn't know the course and were doing a preview before my race and got lost. I got all worked up because we had to cut through the woods to the start, where my race was on the line almost ready to go. We can joke about it now, at least :). Mt. Blue girls ended up third behind Brunswick and Mt. Ararat, while the boys came in a rather disappointing 8th.. Regionals next weekend @ Belfast, and I'm ready for redemption.
KKNW, Addie


Madsy Schneider: "Darn, I've never made it onto the wood!"
Me: "Quick, step up on here for a second!" :)

Maryam Norton and Alex Luchini... The "onion" was a motivator for our JV girls team


Sam Wood (whom I've always secretly wanted as a little brother.. wow that sounds pretty creepy), a Hampden boy, Sully Jackson and Justin Tracy as Andy R-P hugs someone else during Class A awards.

Mt. Blue Relays 2011

It has recently dawned on me that this is my year of lasts with the Mt. Blue cross country team. It makes sense that it would be a bit sad for any graduating athlete, sure, but I feel like it's a little bit different in my case. If you were to go through my endless drawers of running shirts in my room, you'd be able to find specially ordered child's size shirts from the Mt. Blue Relays dating back to the 90's. Why? Because I've been wrapped up in the Maine running community way back since the days my mom used to push me in my lime green jogger at her track practices as she coached her athletes. I mean, I used to attend the annual Acadian camping trip in diapers and shyly pass out the ribbons at the Mt. Blue Relays awards ceremony. So knowing that this past Friday has been my last Relays ever is.. hard. Ok, enough nostalgia. This year had to be the muddiest Mt. Blue Relays in living memory. On Thursday, most of our practice was spent draining the water off of the muddy spots on the course and then shoveling kitty litter-like gravel onto those areas. But by the time I ran over those affected areas as the first leg of our team, the conditions were no better than before we'd started the previous day. (Oh, on a side note, there were 18 teams present, a MB Relays high). By the time I tagged off to our second runner, I'd literally eaten mud out on the course, because of the boys in front of me kicking it back as they trampled through the mess. Such a good time. I ended up having the second fastest girls time of the day to Bethany Brown of Waterville, and our girl's "A" team placed second to Mt. Ararat, with Waterville rounding up the top three. On the boy's side, Bangor won, Mt. Ararat was second, and our boys ended up third. After we finished, several members of the team decided to hit up the muddy places on the course, and ended up having a bit of a mud fight. Actually, it ended up being a bit more intense than that; at one point my cousin literally tackled me to the ground right in the middle of it all. By the time we left, anyone running over that section would really wonder what had happened there, as it appeared as though people had literally rolled around in the mud.. :D Dancing, as always, was sweet, and the dinner nice and pasta-ey. Once awards were over we quickly got bundled up in warmer clothes to go support the football team (it was homecoming game), which was followed by our homecoming dance. Needless to say, I think we all rested fairly well that night :) The video link is below, which was fantastically created by Brewer!
http://www.youtube.com/user/runsub5#p/u/0/wjV0_D1piGE
KKNW, Addie

A Festival Fit For Champions.

We were all as prepared as we could be for the mud and rain and wet that presented itself to us on Saturday. There's something catchy in the air at a big meet like this that gets everyone excited, regardless of the weather. I love being surrounded by 924 other athletes getting ready to race, or whatever crazy number it was this year. The day started out with the Canadian and American national anthems being sung beautifully by my fellow ARC running camp buddy, Grant Richards of Belfast. Lovely job!! The race order went unseeded, freshman, seeded (girls/boys respectively in each category). Watching the freshmen boy's race was really sad; there was one racer near the end who did not have spikes on, and was slip-and-sliding all over the part before the man-made hills. As the day progressed, it only got muddier (I refrain from saying "worse" because mud is what we live for). When the seeded girls were only a half mile into the race, we must have looked like some splatter-paint art project. Regardless of the conditions, the first mile on Belfast's course always proves to be incredibly fast, and although I was considerably back from the leader, Abbey Leonardi, I still managed to split a sub six first mile. During the race, I remember being a tad bit confused as to why I was running amongst fellow athletes that had previously run low 19 minute 5k's- especially when I clocked in at a 20:31- but had the conditions been a bit more ideal for PR's, I would have most likely crushed my LPR by over a minute. The idea of that is encouraging, but also makes me a bit stressed knowing that I still haven't actually run that time. When I crossed the line 12th, all I felt like doing was sitting down, despite the fact that every inch of grass out there that day was smothered in double the amount of mud. I didn't really care, but my uniform noticeably required a bit of washing after that meet. ARC really represented in terms of the top boys and girls teams overall that day. MDI girls and Falmouth boys won; a lot of those people had been fellow campers with me this summer in Acadia National Park. Also, nice job to Katherine Gunther, who placed in the top ten in the girls freshman race.
KKNW, Addie
Also, check out the videos from the meet, which can be found on the links below:
http://www.youtube.com/user/runsub5#p/u/2/asrrE8WAgzo (Boys seeded)
http://www.youtube.com/user/runsub5#p/u/1/Ixdsk5q8V6c (Girls seeded)

BRUNSWICK (my Birthright)!

From left to right: Emily G., Molly, Alexaiya, Louise, Casey, Chenoa

Emily Ro., Katherine, Maryam

Today was a rainy day. How beautiful is that? Rain on the day of the Brunswick meet means no horrible "desert" part of the course (cue angels singing Hallelujah). For those of you who have never run on Brunswick's course, you can find it at a farm -Crystal Springs Farm (or something along those lines)- mere minutes away from the school. The course narrows to about a person and a half width within 200 meters or so, and throughout the race, one must negotiate where to step, as footing can be rough with the awkward slanted hills and abundant amount of white roots. I'm just taking a guess that whoever spray-painted all of those roots is probably in the hospital for life due to back problems.. every root bigger than a pencil is highlighted. Which, don't get me wrong, is really wonderful, but jeesh! In the beginning, I felt the need to pick up the pace a little bit, expecting others to follow suit, but when they didn't, I kept going. I passed the first mile in a 6:20, and wondered why I was still alone. Midway through the race, Teresa Murphy (Bruns) caught up with me, and held a little bit of distance on me to the end.. I'm not sure how much it was exactly, because no other team got times (the timing system malfunctioned, but our coach always times Mt. Blue athletes just in case). Unfortunately, I ended up with a 21:02. It would have been a relief to break 21 on that course, but it has made me all the more excited for FOC next weekend. Louisa Stancioff ended up 5th after a stellar kick in the end, and on the boy's side, we had several in the top ten. The girls finished 3rd behind Mt. Ararat and Brunswick (which was only 1 point ahead of us!!)
KKNW, Addie

Highlights:
-Subway
-Cosmo
-The bonding moment I experienced with fellow captain and blogger, Maryam, prior to the race ;)

Small World of Running

So something has been happening to me a lot recently, I see someone who looks vaguely familiar in another town and think all day about where I've seen them before. About 80% of the time I eventually realize that I know them from xc, indoor or outdoor track.
Today I went to an college open house and continuously had this happen to me, I saw a guy asking a question to the head of admissions and thought "I bet he's a runner" and then two seconds later heard him talking about track. The same thing happened with a girl who I was absolutely positive I had seen before, but couldn't place where (outdoor track). Runners seem to have a sixth sense about when other runners are around, and seeing each other usually starts with a "Do I know you?" look and ends with a "Hey, I think we raced together!"
The point of all this is that I am always finding new members of the big running family. Those of you planning on running in college will probably end up having some of your rivals become your room-mates and having high school teammates running at rival colleges. Running is a pretty tight-knit community, and it makes me happy to know that wherever I end up I'll have a familiar face to run with.

KKNW,
Maryam

USATF NATIONALS

Here's my schpeal. Contact me either at a meet or by facebook (whether you are a guy or girl, really, I'll help any of you) if you are interested. The location where Regionals will be held has not been announced yet, but States are always at Cony and Nat's this year are in Myrtle Beach. Teams can carry eight people, and the top three teams at Regionals qualify for Nationals (or you can qualify individually). DO IT, It is SUPER FUN :D
KKNW, Addie

Zucchini Toss 2011

This year was the second annual (if we can call it "annual" already) Mt. Blue cross country Zucchini Toss. Everyone on the team draws a slip of paper with a number on it, and then trades it in for that number zuke. The catch is that you don't know what shape of size your vegetable is going to be. The number zucchini is assigned to an elite running athlete, which the MB athletes then have to find three facts about, so the competition has a learning piece to it as well. I drew #10, Alan Webb. On the girl's side, the farthest throw was by Emily Gardner, and the boy's (and overall) champion was Dustin Staples.
KKNW, Addie