It Takes. (States 2010)

It takes.
It takes a lot of courage to sign up for something completely foreign to you when you first enter high school. It takes many miles and countless crunches (even though they all actually were counted) to reach your peak as a team and as a runner. It takes getting to know wonderful people from across the state that all share something extremely important in their lives in common with you. It takes horrible races that make you cry in the finish chute, and injuries that wont heal fast enough. It takes making memories. It takes teammates that are there to motivate and inspire you, even if they have already graduated. It takes a bit of sucking up at the beginning of the season when you first dig your new spikes in the muddy puddles, but then it takes too much effort to avoid them after that. It takes someone who's good with pliers to get old spikes out when the spike bottoms have become shot. It takes tons of pasta. It takes peeing- on average- every couple of hours or more. It takes a lot of stamina to step up to the line, knowing that the next some-odd minutes are going to feel like hell, whether you run a 15 minute or a 27 minute 5K, but somehow, you're always craving the next season when the present one comes to an end. It takes adventure runs through the woods. It takes Who am I, Ninja destruction, The animal game and Jeepers Creepers. It takes being tagged in 40 bajillion facebook pictures in which every single one looks like you're being tortured. It takes going with the flow and accepting that no one else in the school cares if you got a new record or made school history. It takes realizing your ultimate potential and what you aspire to achieve by the end of your high school career. It takes enjoying XC music. It takes a good team cheer to pump you up, whether its a creative rhyme the team has used for the past couple of years or all you do is scream your heads off together. It takes proud parents and fantastic coaches to guide you along the course. It takes spankies. And in the end, it takes as much as you are willing to give, and the more you give, the less you'll lose when you sprint your way down into the finish chute. But it doesn't take much for me to love the XC runners across and throughout Maine. And to anyone who followed our team blog over the COURSE of the season, we hope you enjoyed getting to know the way we do XC. To MB(se)XC 2010, whatever it takes <3
KKNW, Addie

Caution- Slippery When Wet (2nd 7)

Jasmine, Amy, Me, Juliette, Farren, Louisa and Eliza

Second Seven Highlights

-Kjell (LPR) and Maryam both got top ten in the boys and girls races respectively

-The entire course was very well hydrated.. it was one big sloshy cold puddle

-There was a very nice girl who let Louisa and I have her other chocolate doughnut

-Sourpatch kids that burned through our tongues

-All of the signs Brunswick made with pretty stickers (go Eva and Natalie!)

-I let a teammate borrow my shoes for the race and then I left them in the parking lot. Perhaps karma was having a bad day.

-Clara (our "little German") conversed with the German exchange student from Brunswick

Guys got 2nd and the girls placed 4th. Bravo to both of their seasons :D

KKNW, Addie (apologies for the double picture, not sure whats up with it)

Dress Up Run!

The practice prior to Regionals is called The Dress Up Run in which the team goes parading downtown in old prom dresses, wedding gowns and suits and ties as a group. We always get quite a few head turns and double takes. Some of the regulars in town always say "we were wondering when the cross country team was going to do their crazy run downtown!" We usually sprint excitedly to the elementary playground to play on it for a little while (and kind of scare the little kids; a few guys always opt for the dresses to experience a freer run), but the school is currently being rebuilt on the site. So instead, we ran through the school and got flashed by a hyper little boy who chased us. Times certainly have changed. We also always do a lap of honor around the UMF fitness center track and when we got back outside, it was snowing. No dryland training during ski season this year??
KKNW, Addie

We Used the Course at the Mt. Blue Relays 2010.

Louisa and I get a kick out of this photo.

This race features:
- Famous hill
- Speakers blasting pump up music throughout the apple orchard
- Dance party in the field
- Spaghetti supper (and awards)
- Epic annual cup stacking

Around this time of year, the course gets particularly muddy, and several spikes are usually held hostage in the mess. But it continues to be a favorite race of many athletes. Not much more to say on the matter except the shirts that the team designs are always AWESOME.

KVAC's @ Cony 10/16/2010

Lets all take a moment to praise the Cony team in putting up with their home course all season :P I must say, this has always been my least favorite course to run on, and I know a lot of athletes would have rather raced at UMA like always, but unfortunately it was not so this year. The race was not the kind of situation you'd expect to run a PR in either, so well done to those of you who accomplished that feat. On the girl's side, Katie McMahon was the only girl to break 20. No one in the boy's race broke 17, which clearly demonstrates the kind of race it was. Mt. Ararat dominated on both sides. Mt Blue boys earned a second place team finish with three boys making the All Conference KVAC team. The girls finished in third with two in the All Conference team. Lets just say I did not have a stellar performance. In fact, I think it is safe to say that KVAC's 2010 now tops my worst race ever list. 22:43 is worse than ridiculous; my previous 5k time was a 20:32. The week leading up to the meet was a sick one for me; I missed two practices and a day of school. It was kind of awful having to hold my mouth for half of the race to keep things down, although when I ran by my dad on the course he was like "don't hold anything back, let it up if you have to." Oh god gross :/ Special recognition to Sarah Wade for placing second in the JV race and ending up fourth on our team! Looking forward to Regionals at my FAVORITE course next weekend :)

A Festival only fit for Champions.

Festival of champions. An early Saturday every October where instead of sleeping in, over sixty teams wake up with the sun, screw in their half inch spikes and preview the trails at Troy Howard Middle School for one of six races. This year, we were extremely fortunate because it didn't rain during the day like the downpour we experienced in '09, although the course was pretty mushy from the previous night's rain. The course got progressively worse throughout the day, so maybe "progress"ively is not the best word choice :P Our girls ended up 7th and the boys were 9th with five individuals receiving medals. Alex Chandler, Abby Lochala and Hannah Chaney all place in the top ten in the unseeded races while Gwen Beacham and myself were included in the top twenty finishers in the seeded race. The medals are always really cool because their centers swivel around! I especially love this race because the race numbers have everybody's names on them, so it is always fun cheering for literally everyone like I know them personally. Louisa and I entertained ourselves by going up to random people and congratulating them on their races. We got so many confused looks :P Congrats to Abbey Leonardi for setting a new girl's course record of 17:58, and also well done team Canada for your interesting male vocals while singing O Canada!
KKNW, Addie

On top: Abby Lochala and Addie Cullenberg.
On bottom: Hannah Chaney, Alex Chandler and Gwen Beacham.