Go Hard on the Last Two

First day of Cross Country! I'm super excited to be back and I am ready to get rocking and rolling. Started today out with a .5 mile warmup and then ran a 5 mile easy run. It was good to see new faces and some old ones. Today Sage showed up and ran with us and it was good because it was sad that he isn't going to run with us anymore. But, it was cool to learn that Hayden Hawks is going to be an assistant coach this year and help the guys team out so that will be cool. I'm just really excited for this season, I know if we can focus on our goals and work hard we can achieve our goals even with the loss of a bunch of our seniors.

In the Morning, I started by running a half mile warmup. Then, I ran with some of the new kids getting to know some of them and encouraging them to do their best. I ran 3 miles with those guys just to shake out the legs for the run with Coach Thatcher later today.

In the Afternoon, I ran Forsyth Canyon mostly with Hayden Hawks, but Coach Thatcher, Kylee, and Lily were just behind us. I learned a lot on that Up Hill run and some of it was from Hayden himself and the life stories and lessons he taught me, but a lot of it was from the things I did wrong on my way up the hill. Things such as the hill isn't conquered in the first mile, and the Nutrition and Hydration Sensation that is Sweeping the Nation is Sweeping the Nation for a reason. I learned a lot and by the time SpeedGoat comes I'll be ready to go. On the way down the hill I ran with Kylee and Lily and we left Coach and Hayden in the dust. Hayden caught us with a couple miles left and it was just an awesome run all around. I had a major cramp on the way up and that hurt a lot until I could stop and fix it. On the way down it wasn't too bad.

This morning I felt a little tired because of the run last night and I showed up to practice a little late, but as I was going out I passed some of the people coming back from their runs and then later caught up to the Boys and ran it with them. My foot hurt just a little bit and my legs are a little tight, but nothing a little stretching and some ice can't help.

5 miles with the boys.

5 miles by the golf course.

14 miles up Forsyth Canyon again. This time we had more people. There was Ethan, Adia, Kasey, Chloè, Kylee, Coach Thatcher, and myself. I ran in the Ultraspire Alpha pack and it was really good. I felt really good through the whole run and made it up to the top just slower than I did on Tuesday. On the way down I was feeling really good and was going down at a pretty fast pace and stepped on a rock that wasn't secure so I slipped and hit the ground. We were all going fast so Kylee who was in front of me kept running and Chloè who was behind me almost ran over me. But after a couple minutes and a couple band-aids my leg was all good and I could actually lip-run again. But we, for the most part, made it safely down the mountain side and finished up with some stretching. Had some ultragen and when we got back into town we got some lunch. I guess you could say it was a successful run.