All Roads Don't Lead to Rome

The Rim Rock squad plus a couple extra guys traveled to McNair Park to preview the course before Saturday's meet. This was much needed as the course can be a little confusing. You run the same part of the course multiple times, there are intersections, and it was slightly modified from last year. On our warm-up we messed up a couple of times, but we got it figured out and will be able to help everyone on race day. Next was 3 miles on the course at tempo+ pace. Everyone ran well and is ready to go for Saturday.

JV Jot:

The fancy new track that only 4 other facilities in the world have was dysfunctional again. So practice today began out in AC land for the JV and Freshmen squads. After a throwback warm-up taking place on the north practice fields, we arrived back in AC land to find Juniors Tim Hunter, Michael McWhorter, and Michael Ahlheim missing. A brief investigation revealed that Hunter's car battery had died when he and McWhorter went somewhere in the time between school ending and practice beginning, and Ahlheim had gone to help them.
-LaFever-

The JV and Freshman team had cruse intervals at Runnymede. It was a great day for tempos especially in the always shady Runnymede; the entire JV/Freshman team had a great run. Afterwards we met in AC land, after taking the long way to and from Runnymede, for stretching and core. Then the team went inside for a well earned chocolate milk.
-Mega Group (Higgens, McGann, & Beers)-

Quote of the Day: "Matt, give me a nickel back!"- Madey when we were hanging out in 204 before practice. He was writing football plays on the board.

Joke of the Day: “If I pet you will you purr.”- McGann to J. Potter

Title: There were many lines in McNair Park and they all didn't go to the same place.

Parkway West Invitational
McNair Park

On Saturday, the Cross Country Spartans will travel to McNair park for the Parkway West Invitational. The team will look to build of the momentum from the meets at Fox and Rim Rock last week.

The team did their second 5k workout on Tuesday. It was tough. The 800 meter loop consisted of multiple hills that the runner conquered several times during the workout. Sophomore Glen McGann knows these workouts make you tough:

"The workout at Conway taught me that I can do awesome if I maintain focus and push myself harder than I think I can. It also taught me that I can push through the 2nd and 3rd mile."

Last week, Senior Seamus Hamilton won Runner of the Week honors by running a PR a Rim Rock. He learned some lessons, and is looking for a repeat performance on Saturday.

"I learned that I can fight a lot longer than I used to. I’ll just have to become better than the man I was a week ago."

The Parkway West Invite is the final meet before Conference, which means we are officially in the home stretch of the season. Glen is trying to put a check mark next to a few more goals.

"This season I have hit my paces well on tempo workouts but, in races, it has been a struggle to reach to the goals that I set at the beginning of the season. I still have quite a few goals to achieve: breaking 20, breaking 19, and being consistently top 7 on JV to name a few. I feel I am on the right track to have a great race and break all the goals I have with the remaining time left in the season."

Seamus is a four year vet, and knows how the team needs to prepare.

"Even though we’re getting close to the end we shouldn't’t be slacking off, we should be fighting even harder so we can earn that week of rest that comes at the end."

Good luck to all the Spartans this Saturday. The course is very fair and everyone will have a great chance to race well. Special thanks to Glen and Seamus for responding on short notice, it's been a busy week.

From McNair
Alex Potter
MTBL