So the Radnor girls were getting ready to line up on the start line for the Central League Championships at the Rose Tree Park in Media last Saturday. Everyone had their spikes on. I was just starting to get them out of my bag. I'm always the last one on the line, it seems, to take my warm-ups off and put my spikes on; ask my team from Washington, I like to be ready for the start last. Or wait the least time for the gun to go off.
Anyway, I reach into my bag and pull out one spike. And there's only one shoe in that track bag. No matter how many times I dump it out and look through the gum wrappers, there is no other shoe. I was getting a little frustrated, when Shannon said she had a pair of waffles up at the tent. We run up the tent, hoping not to hear the starting gun, and I tripped over this lump under the tarp. There was my left shoe. What could have been a real weird race, in flats that didn't fit me, on a muddy course, turned out just fine.
One Mile - Five Radnor runners and Marple Newtown's Natalie Finnerty. 
It was a beautiful day for a race, especially after the two days before of downpour rain. That rain, though, meant that the course was going to be soggy, and that patch of dirt that tripped Katie up last week at Delco's, was going to be mud. We ended up only having to run over the patch once in the race, at the top of the 2 mile mark hill. On the way to the finish someone had made a nice little bark chip bridge to cross the sogginess. Pretty spiffy really. Except some of us were really hoping we'd have to run through some real mud and get all dirty, so we could look all hardcore. No such luck.
Liz won this time, and led the rest of us to a first place finish over Conestoga, 25-89, a big jump for the Pioneers as they moved up from 4th place in the Central League last year. The course was different again, a cross between the Bulldog course and the original Rose Tree course. Kelyn Freedman, our frosh ace, and I, the senior from out of town, have never run the same course for the three races we've run there this season. When Coach Flanagan talks about running through the horseshoe the right way, or backwards, we just laugh and make him point to what end we're supposed to come out of.
Besides the crazy start, where we were lined up like at a little dual meet - #1 from Radnor, Strath Haven and Conestoga next to each other for ten teams, then #2's, #3's in sets all the way down - it was a pretty low-key meet. It was a little sad to line up next to girls that weren't your teammates. I missed Shannon and patting my nose to see if I had taken my nose stud out, and checking to see if Katie's laces were tied up. For once (she's going to kick me for making so much fun of her). I guess little things make you appreciate your team. Being separated at the start was an incentive for us to get out quick and find the Radnor pack asap.
It was a real feel-good meet for us, and you can see from the pictures that Don Rich took, just how much fun it can be to run with such a tight pack.
Central League Photo Gallery-Girls Varsity
We were together for more than a mile, then Liz went after Hannah Kligman from Conestoga. Shannon made her run to the front with Kelyn and I held on for the ride this time. June also had another great race for her comeback from an early season injury. She scored for Radnor as our #5 for the first time since getting off the bike. Even though Katie didn't feel so great today, as Don wrote in his summary of the meet, look for her this Friday at Districts to make up for her disappointing race with a bang.
Radnor is beginning to gel. Really, if we could race Hilton now, I think it might turn out differently than it did at Warwick Valley, meaning no disrespect to Hilton. Our #5 runner at the Warwick Mania Invite last month, was Shannon, and, after running as our new #2 and #3 the last two meets, with the rest of us running as fast or faster, I think our match up with our friends from Rochester would definitely be even closer. Could we beat them? Scary thought time; it being Halloween, though, and the height of the season, we're supposed to be thinking scary thoughts.
Our times weren't spectacular again, because as Mr. Rich wrote, they lengthened the course once again. I'm sure it would be a 6k if we ran Districts there. But with June completing her come-back, giving the Radnor girls an even tighter pack, #1-6, we're all excited about running at Districts on the Lehigh course this Friday. The scary thought may be seeing how fast we can really go as a team.