Last year the Radnor girls cross country team won the District 1 title almost by mistake. No one on that edition of the team really expected to win. This year, all eyes seemed to be looking way up the start line, to the very last box at the girls who have their heart set on an NTN bid. We were undefeated in dual meet competition and only one team beat us head-to head in invitationals. That team was ranked #1 in the US then and the Radnor team has only gotten faster. The District 1 race, consequently, was a very different story from last year. If we didn't win this year or just didn't win by a bunch, that would be the story at Penn Track. And I didn't want to write that story.
The District 1 race was the single largest race in Pennsylvania last weekend with 378 finishers in the AAA girls race alone. What a mob scene. We started in the next to very last box on the incredibly long start line, #63, way up the slope, far enough that we couldn't see the other end or the center. When Coach Flanagan first walked us up to it, Liz Milewski, our #1 the last few weeks, almost went into cardiac arrest. She was really wound up for this race, and being named one of the favorites to actually win this whole race, just made her more nervous. Obviously a little high strung and on pins and needles before the race, for a few minutes you might have thought we were actually assigned a box 10 meters behind the rest of the field.
Shannon Holm, Kelyn Freedman, June Farley, Katie Lally at 1.75 miles at D1
Liz was pretty entertaining actually, and only after Shannon and I pointed out that we would be running almost totally downhill to the archway where everyone met, and that we really had the best box number ever imaginable, did Liz calm down a little. Enough to warm up with everyone, at least, and start thinking about the race, where we would be spending a lot more time. Coach Flanagan watched the start from the bottom of the hill and he told us it looked like we were really working harder than most of the other teams just to stay even with the pack on the way to the arch. In the end he said we probably ended up running a few extra meters compared to the girls in the lower box numbers. The word now is that next year they might curve the start line a little for the teams set way on the top of the hill. Who knew? At this point in the season, we're learning to take what we're given and make the best of it, right? All things work to the good.
The start line was funky, of course, only because of the mob. It was moved up around 90 meters or so from the District 11 start the day before. One coach said it was because there were just so many teams running; they had to move it up to the wider part of the field. They compensated for it at around the 800 meter mark by making everyone run about 90 meters out from the usual turn towards the mile mark. Not that I would know what the usual course is like, this being my first year here, but the seniors and quite a few Coaches pointed out how that part was different. There was some speculation on the PennTrack forums after the race over the team averages from the Emmaus and Radnor girls' times, most of which suggested that we had run a short course. This made sense on first blush because of the start line being closer to the finish line. Mr. Rich pointed out that they actually lengthened the course in another area so it balanced out in the end.
Emmaus ran an amazing race at the District 11 meet on Thursday. They finished with only 24 points and a team average of 18:58. They've run some impressive races this season, especially as their top 7 is entirely freshmen and sophomores with one lonely senior. They moved up to PA#2 last week. But don't forget Council Rock. They were the runner-up team in our AAA race and they finished with a team average of 18:59, just one second behind Emmaus'. So that adds another close factor, just from Districts 1 and 11. The way Emmaus has been running and dropping their times this season, this should be quite a race.
Back to the District 1 race last week.
Liz got over her start line worries Friday and just tore up that course. She ran an outstanding race, just behind the leaders for 2 miles and then letting go with a big kick to finish 2nd over all in the AAA/AAAA race. Her time, 18:06, is a new Radnor 5k school record and she led us to a first place finish over the loaded field of huge Philadelphia-area schools with 70 points. What a great time at the end her senior cross country season! It's especially impressive after coming off such an injury and not being able to run all summer. Liz is not only our fearless leader but an example of hard work and persistence paying off.
Liz Milewski is 2nd in 18:06.
The Lehigh course is awesome. This was my first time ever running on it and I had a blast. The start was can only be described as "controlled chaos" and "very fast." Everyone sprinted out like it was their only chance to lead the race. Which, frankly, in 360 girls' case, at least, it was. I got off to a little slower start and was glad to have started out running from the back of the Radnor pack. I began to work my way up once everyone else was settling down. By the mile mark I was running as Radnor's #2. I could see Liz up ahead duking it out with the fastest girls but I could still hear the familiar sounds of Kelyn Freeman, our frosh rocket, and Shannon Holm, our other Senior captain, breathing down my neck. Having them close was almost comforting. At one part in the race, I think around the mile mark, I somehow picked up a bark 'chip' (read more along the lines of "wood chunk") in my shoe, and it got wedged across my entire foot between the rows of spikes. It didn't slow me down, but it did become really aggravating, especially on the hill. At the finish line as I was prying it out, Liz came up to me and handed me this chunk of wood that she had just pulled free from her spikes, too, during the last part of the race. I think now it must actually be some kind of Harrier good luck charm... All wood chunks work to the good?
A funny thing happened to me on the hill around the cornfield. I was running along, minding my own business (worrying about closing a gap in front of me, truth be told), and this girl on the sideline started cheering and calling my name. I look over and it's a girl who had been my roommate this summer at the camps I went to, someone I hadn't talked to since the fall madness started. She and I spent three weeks at Annapolis and West Point (West Point's Summer Leadership Seminar, the Naval Academy's Summer Seminar, and the Navy cross country camp) for those schools' weeklong sessions on what their about and what's involved in getting an appointment and that sort of thing. She was one of my roommates from the last one at USNA but we hadn't spoken or written since.
Maybe it was the unexpected blast from the past of seeing her again, or the fact that there was only about 1000 meters left in the race or the combination, but I felt elated, two steps above where I usually am feeling at 4k.Taking advantage of this bizarreness, I passed a couple more girls and ended up placing 8th overall and 3rd in AAA. That gave me a little happier feeling than my 12th place at Delco's two weeks ago. I finished #2 for the team at Lehigh, then Kelyn came hammering in at 11th place, followed by the intense four person race that involved Shannon, June and Unionville's #1 and #2 girls. Radnor girls were five runners in the top 30 overall, AAA/AAAA combined, and six in the top 20 for AAA. I wasn't going to have to write the "why we lost" story.
Coach Flanagan sat down with us at the beginning of the week and told us what needed to happen at the District race. His plan? Run fast. Actually it was a little more involved when he explained it, but it all boiled down to everyone running a solid race and our using this course to get a fast team average. Everyone ran very well, following his instructions, and we finished with an 18:39 team average. The super-sized field didn't mess us up thanks to Coach Flanagan and the seniors who have run this size race before; it may have even helped us run faster than the Emmaus frosh, whose District 11 race was not that crowded.
My heroes this race? Shannon Holm was not herself but ran very well to keep us ahead of Council Rock. Even with a stuffy nose and feeling sick, Shannon toughed it out and ran as our #4 on the relatively flat course. Most of us like pool-table races. Not Shannon; she prefers hilly courses like Rose Tree and the old Hershey course. She hammered it out though, and is really looking forward to this weekend and the State course, which has been described as "XC Heaven". That just sounds ominous. Anyway, Katie Lally also turned in a great race with the most dramatic time drop from the previous race, running almost 2 minutes faster than her disappointing time at the Central League meet.
The author, Hannah Granger, runs 8th overall (2nd Radnor), going 18:37.
The 'Runner of the Day' award, though, has to go to June Farley. Running faster than her last race once again, June surprising everyone, even Coach Flanagan. She told him before the race that she was going to run under 19 minutes for the first time that morning. Coach patted her on the back and told her that was a great goal time. In all honesty, as he told her the next morning, he thought she was about one race away from running that time. He decided not to burst her bubble, though; at least it wouldn't hurt to try, he thought. She ran 18:55 in her third varsity race of the season, and gutted it out in the last 800 meters to hold off two girls from Unionville. With June running well, little Radnor High School, 860 students, 425 girls, has six girls capable of sub 19:00 races on any given day. Not bad for a college team really.
We're also going to have a different #7 runner, Nicole Erkis, for the State meet. She ran Varsity for us at the Warwick Mania meet and ran a fabulous District race, so Coach is changing the lineup around again. Annie and Clare are still running with us, of course, and will drive west to Hershey with us in our decorated van as our honorary second and third #7 runners. How cool is that job? You get to go to State, get a team shirt, and then watch everyone run away in the race. And have a worry-free-night-before-the-State-meet.
One question out of left field from this Olympic Peninsula transplant: Why does everyone in Pennsylvania call the State Championship race "States"? In Washington it was "State," as in "I'm going to State!" With one S. As in 'Singular.' Where's the other State or States people are talking about that makes this race plural? I'm still making mental adjustments. Why is the ocean on my left? Am I looking south?
Anyway, the State race this Saturday should be interesting, and just like our race at the Warwick Invite, it will be a completely new course for each one of us. From what we've heard, the State course will be similar to last year's, and, unless you live in the hills or had an alpine districts course, there isn't much hope of running a personal record time at the State meet in Hershey. Looking at the pictures posted on the website, it looks like we might need little boats just to cross the flooded area. That would be a neat change. Not only will it come down to who runs the smartest on the hilly course, but the girls who can walk on water have a real advantage. Here's hoping that water doesn't freeze this week and we all wind up walking on it.
If our team is invited to NTN, we run as a club rather than as a High School. State, then, will be the seniors' last high school cross country race for Radnor. We have high hopes of going out with a Wow, a bang of putting the last four years of training and racing all together into one perfect "leave nothing in the tank" race. So many thoughts going through our minds; the seniors and their feeling of a grand finale, and the underclassmen knowing that they will have to live with this for the next 2-3 years. Do I need to say it's going to be a long week heading to Hershey? Probably not. I'm looking forward to the gun going off Saturday morning and the 20ish minutes I'll have with my friends one last time in a Pennsylvania cross country race.
Here's hoping I have a good story to share here this time next week.