“Last Saturday was one of the best times I have ever had at
a meet”
–pretty much everyone
The
Forest Park invitational was one of those meets…… if you stuck around. Starting
off the fantastic meet was the JV’s performance. They came in at a solid 14th
place, with many of them running PRs on a longer and harder course, headed by
Patrick Sanchez, Andrew Smith, Thomas Linhares, Nolan Shannon, and Ralph Skitt.
The Varsity coming in at 11th was headed by me, Michael Ruiz Del
Arbol Smith Cot Wilson Stein Malone, Tyler O‘Connor, Mathew Woodford, and
Collin Donovan. The Freshmen had an amazing race. They came in at 6th
place headed by Teddy Weishaar, Nick Einig, Will Cramsey, Mathew James, and
Joseph Moffatt. The whole team ran a competitive race, not just against runners
in the area, but in the whole Midwest and farther!
Running
so competitively was a huge contribution to the buzz and excitement along with
the nervousness and dread. What kept me motivated was the sheer excitement of
what we were going to do after the race. PAINTING UP! I could not get the thought out of my head. My
mental approach to the race was, “The faster I run, the faster I get to paint
up.” After we finished, we hurried back to the tent to see Nolan hidden in the
trees making some sort of concoction. When
he finally got the mix of red and black right, we all started to apply
awesomeness to our bodies.
Beforehand we figured out who was
what letter. Tyler was the D, Chris was an E, Michael Ruiz Del Arbol Smith Cotton Wilson Stein Malone was the S, Woodford was the M, Collin was another E, and
Neil was the T, I of course was the most important Exclamation Point and
painted my whole body maroon, Christian was a poser Spanish Exclamation Point,
Nolan painted a Spartan on his chest, Juice (Justin McNeil) painted his whole
front and had a white hand print, and Finally Nick looked like he was going to
come out of the forest and kill me with a spear.
It was a very swell time cheering
on the Freshman. Having already run a hard race, sprinting from one place to
another made it even more memorable. This was an extraordinarily great idea
from Mr. Coach Adam Boehm. The only downside was the crustiness after! Luckily
it was washable paint so it was just a quick scrub to remove.
-Joe Reed
