Hey everyone,The cross country season is over for us here and we are now in a period of transition into the indoor track season. Last time we left you we had 2 weeks until the Northeast Regional meet, held in Boston. We recovered well from the America East Conference Champs and began to taper down for Regionals.
We arrived in Boston on the Friday and jogged the course, which at this stage was hard and almost track-like. The weather turned over night and due to 6 high-school races, and thousands running over the course before the college races, we ended up racing on a course a foot deep in mud. However, that is cross country and everyone had to deal with it. We went into the race with the same goals in mind; for our team to place in the top 2 spots, for an automatic bid to Nationals, and individually in the top 6 to also advance.
Unfortunately, Holly and I didn’t perform as well as we had hoped and were unable to get out quick enough to be competitive in the front group. We remained around the top 15 for the entire race – there didn’t seem to be much movement after the first 500m. In conditions like this we learnt it is key to get out at the start, into the position you want to finish in, as making advances from pack to pack proved to be difficult. However, as you all know running is full of ups and downs and this was one of those races where we just learnt a lot. Our team placed 3rd and Holly place 14th while I was right behind her in 15th. We were disappointed that we couldn’t continue our goals through to Nationals but it has given us more determination for coming seasons and we know this experience will only help us in future races. The cool thing about running is that there is always another race and another goal to set.
We went on to race at the ECAC Champs held in New York, a week later, and were pleased to finish the season off on a high note (I came 1st and Holly 2nd). We now look forward to coming home in 3 weeks to do some solid summer training. Holly is coming back to compete in the indoor season, focusing on the 5k, whereas I will be redshirting the season (racing unattached), later heading into the outdoor season to focus on the 1500m. There are exciting things to come…we sure are ready!
God Bless,
Holly and Lucy
ShareThis