For Spring Break this year, my family rented an RV and traveled to Utah to visit several national parks. My goal was to still be able to run while we were traveling and I hoped to be able to find some cool trails. The first stop was Dead Horse Point State Park, near Moab, Utah. Our RV pulled into a “parking spot,” at the campground, and we started to unload. I quickly changed into my running clothes and began to search for a trail. It didn’t take long before I found a 2.5 mile ... << MORE >>

Thursday:

There is always a lot of pressure on Thursday. It is the first day of the meet and the momentum of the entire weekend is riding on one swim. The 1000 is an interesting race to start off with because there are many different way to attack the event, but I decided I was going to go all out from the start and hope for the best. Coaches never advise this, but I thought that maybe, I would still be able to close hard after going out really hard. I was ... << MORE >>

When we turned the clocks back, we gained light at night, but in return got darkness in the morning. It’s going to take some getting used to, but I will miss one thing: Running in the Dark at night. Before the time change, I used to come home from swim practice at 6:45 p.m., eat a Powerbar and be out running by 7:15 p.m. I could usually squeeze in five miles at the most, before I would have to be back, to do my homework. To some people, running after swim practice may seem like ... << MORE >>

Tomorrow is my last day of Holiday Training before school starts. It has been a very eventful two weeks.

It all started on December 19th, my first swim practice since school let out. We began this awful “Christmas Training” with the famous “12 Days of Christmas” swim set.

Here is a quick summary of this three hour practice:
Warm-up=400 free+ 400 IM kick
8x125 IM order (25 drill-25 swim-25 drill-25 swim-25 drill) @ 2:00
3x400 freestyle pull @ 4:50 descend 1-3
... << MORE >>

Thursday was the big day, the start of the meet we had been training for all fall. The first event was the 1650 free and it was my best and longest race. That morning, we had a mini practice of 1,200 yards, so our muscles would be loose when it was time to race. Our coach had rental a rental car for those going up early to swim the mile, so me and three other fellow milers piled in and set out on the 4.5 hour drive. The Tom Dolan Speedo Invitational was hosted by Curl-Burke Aquatics, a ... << MORE >>

Thanksgiving Day is a day of eating and sleeping for most, but not for me. The Inside Out Turkey Trot has become a tradition, and I was really looking forward to it this year.

It was cold when I arrived at the starting line, wearing only a long sleeve shirt and shorts. The beginning of the course is uphill and it is a horrible way to start a race. I was supposed to take this race “easy,” because I had a big race Saturday, so I was aiming for around an ... << MORE >>

Last year, I made Wilmington Triathlon a very important race of my season, tapered for it and prepared well for it. This year, however, this wasn’t as realistic of an option. I had to miss a Cross Country meet to attend this race, and I had not done the biking that I should have, to do well. All of that said, I still had a good time at this beautiful race.On Friday, I had 5 a.m. swim practice before school, and then cross country practice after school. I left straight from cross country to head to the race venue. Once I got there, I picked up my packet and went back to the hotel. After dinner, my mom and I went to get ice cream. Ice Cream had become a tradition because last year, we had gone to the same place on Friday and I had done the well the following morning, so we decided to try it again. The next morning, we headed over to the race site. Everything was familiar from the year before, and that was nice. I was wave nine, and the race was wetsuit legal.<< MORE >>

Halloween weekend, The Wake Med Soccer Complex held a National Cross Country festival, including teams from all over the country. My team, Green Hope High School, raced strong as a team, and this was
a cool event to see how we are doing against some of the best teams in the country.



There were tons of races, boys and girls were separated, and I raced in the freshmen race for my team. The Green Hope Freshmen team was a group of six girls who got to race a 5K against teams from,
NY, ... << MORE >>

All year long I swim for my club team, new wave, but during the summer I add something special to my training, Preston Swimming. Preston wood is part of the Tar Heel Swimming Association (TSA) and competes in dual meets every Tuesday through the months of June and July. The team also offers practice in mornings and afternoons and I try to attend at least two a week on top of new wave practices and cross country.

The dual meets are very fun and exciting, but very different from a year-round meet. We have six meets during the season and ...<< MORE >>

The Wake Med Kickoff Classic was my first race as a Green Hope Cross Country runner.  I was excited to wear my GHHS uniform and compete against other athletes in the county but I was also nervous. This was the first test of how I compared to the other kids on my team.  This meet was unusual because the distance was a 3K and the normal high school XC distance is a 5K. I liked the longer races, but had never done just a 3K before.

When I got there, we warmed up, running the course, nice and slow and then stretched. The 9th and 10th grade girls were the first race at 8:00 and that was my race.  I ran a couple striders before joining my teammates at the start. We toed the line, as the starter announced the rules. Then he fired the gun. We were off. I sprinted the start, but not for very long. I was passed by some runners but held a pretty good spot for the first lap. The course was two loops each about 1.25K. The terrain was completely crushed gravel almost like gray sand.

Turning on to the second loop I started to get tired. All of a sudden, a whole pack of Green Hope runners came up on me. They were running strong and there was about six of them. We ran together for the entire second lap. It was fun running with kids from my team, but I knew I had to pick up the pace if I wanted to beat them and I didn’t have much left. We came out of the loop and started the home stretch. There was a hill at the end that was grassy and the seven of us raced up the hill. I started to feel sick as the heat hit me. The other six pulled in front of me and we pushed each other until the end. It was getting hotter and hotter and I was dropping farther and farther behind. Coming into the finish I was behind all of the other Falcons and there was nothing I could do about that, I was way too tired. I took 29th place overall with a time of 13:23.

I was happy with my time, but to happy with my place and hoped to do better next time. The 9th and 10th grade boys were the next race, so I stayed to watch them along with all of the other upperclassmen races.

After all the races were done, I went home, planning on doing a long bike ride and another longer run. My coach told me to run four miles after the race, and I planned on doing a long bike as well. When we got home, my parents and I started out on our bikes and were happy to be out on the road. We got in about 8 miles, before it started to pour. We were wet, cold and didn’t want to bike anymore, so we rode home, put on our running gear and headed to the gym. I ran four miles like my coach told me to, then stopped.

I thought that race was a good test to see how strong and fast I was after a few weeks of training. I knew I could do better, but I felt good about the performance because I knew that it was my first race, and there was a lot to learn.