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DCCVII

October 25, 2014 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Mid 60s-70s, sunny

Comments:
I quote from Anant Kesevan's 2011 log: "Got to take the banner home one last time . . ." I could go on and on, but this day has confirmed my longtime suspicion that cross-country is the greatest sport ever and GDS does it like no other. We took either second in first in every single race: Freshman/Sophomore 2nd, JV boys 1st, JV girls 2nd, Varsity girls second in the ISL to Visitation by six points and varsity boys 1st over Sidwell by 22 POINTS, with our whole top seven in the top 20--1 Tristan, 2 Zeke, 3 Aidan, 7 me, 9 Jackson, 15 M.I. and 20 Kravitz. We intimidated and broke the spirits of other teams with our pack running in my estimation Anthony's plan for us worked perfectly: Aidan, Tristan and Zeke would run as a pack and break Jake Gosselin when necessary, Jackson and I would work together to pass as many people as possible, closing the gap and Matt and Kravitz would take care of Sidwell's 4-7. When the race went off, following a jovial, relaxed warmup, I immediately discerned those packs forming and brought Jackson along with me. A clump of Potomac and Sidwell separated us from our top three by a few meters, but we were too relaxed not to catch them. In the first 400m, I could already see the master plan taking effect; A Sidwell guy tried to sprint past Jackson and me two or three times but kept on hesitating and falling back. There were also a couple instances when we could hear footsteps behind us for a few hundred meters, then they stopped. Throughout the rest of the first mile, I tried to get into a rhythm and not worry about the section immediately after the mile mark, my least favorite part of the course. First mile 5:31--facile comme bonjour. I just stayed focused on Jackson next to me and we passed a couple more people through the clump of trees before the gravel path where I reevaluated my form and made sure to look up. This was going by quickly. The hill going into wooded section before the two-mile mark was not as taxing as I'd feared, plus I had Julias Winkler and Ernst cheering for me. We passed another guy before two miles (11:09, I think) and here I started to struggle a bit. Todd went ahead on the next downhill and Anthony yelled at me to surge in the next 200m, citing the downhill to come. For just a moment I was alone, hearing footsteps behind me and not running the downhill quite as fast as I would have liked, but forced myself to smile and by the time I crossed the creek, didn't hear any. Now it was time to refocus and catch Sam Blazes from Sidwell who had no business being in front of me. At the last hill, Anthony yelled "Hills of Arlington, Spike! This is why you run them!" Nothing could have been so timely and appropriate and at the top of the hill, already past Jackson, I snuck right past Sam. Things were beginning to get painful, but coming around the turn, I reminded myself of three things: 1) I didn't have much further to go. 2) There was a Potomac kid in front of me. 3) Every place matters. I walked down that Potomac kid during the last 100, trying not to look at the clock (one of the first races I was truly able not to worry about time) and making sure no one passed me. In the immediate aftermath, I could hardly stand, but asked Mark if we'd won to which he said "Yes" in the certain way that only Mark can. I'm not jumping up and down about the time, but I was in enough pain that I could put my name on that race and feel no shame--Boardman later texted me, "another day at the office for you guys." Girls race and awards ceremony were fun as well and I was able to defend my All-MAC status and pick up where I left this meet last year. On to DC/MD.