Marissa Sheva of Pennridge has been one of the top PA distance
runners since her debut back in 2011. She has earned three top ten finishes at
the AAA cross country state meet, the gold medal in the 2013 indoor state mile,
and an AAA outdoor track title in the 3200 meters last season. Sheva also joins
the list of PA distance runners to earn the opportunity to run in the Foot
Locker Finals. After finishing 25th in those finals, she ran a
lifetime best 4:50.73 mile at the Bishop Loughlin Games on December 20 to earn
her 3rd trip to the Millrose Games mile. Sheva reflects on the past
month with PennTrack!
Hey Everyone!
I'm Marissa Sheva, a
distance runner and senior from Pennridge High School. This December has been
pretty crazy already with switching from cross country spikes to track spikes
so quickly, but I'm so glad to be able to say that I'm finally on break! As pumped
as I am to start racing and talking track again, I'm going to backtrack to the
beginning of December to talk about the end of my final high school cross
country season.
I knew
from the time I began my summer training that I wanted to go to Foot Locker.
After a disappointing state race, I was really excited to go to the NE Regional
and hopefully redeem myself. After a pretty good race at Van Cortlandt and some
awesome workouts following the state meet, I was a little tired, but I felt
like I was ready to roll in San Diego. The extra month of training after states
was very different for me-- not only was I running when I would usually be on
break, but I was also trying to peak for big races.
The
Foot Locker experience was like no other, so if anyone reading this has the
opportunity to go, don't pass it up! I flew out of Philadelphia with a fellow
SOL and District I runner, Casey Comber. Once we got there I had the
opportunity to catch up with a good friend and eventual FL runner-up, Ryen
Frazier, and meet my roommate Libby Davidson. Over the course of the weekend we
met countless professionals, saw an advanced screening of the new movie
McFarland USA, and hung out with some of the fastest kids in the country. Then Saturday morning
came, and I was pretty nervous. The race went out fast as expected, but I
didn't expect to be mid pack at 800 in 2:32! Overall I was a little disappointed with 25th, but it was
an awesome experience and I'm really glad I went!
On my
cool down at FL I started doubting whether or not I could run a fast mile the
next weekend. I felt like my legs were shot and I wasn't very confident. I did
one workout in between FL and the Bishop Laughlin Games mile, and it was 3 400s
at 72 pace. I felt pretty awful and I actually contemplated shutting down and
not racing, but I really wanted to get my Millrose Games qualifier. Then I
started to get anxious when I found out I'd be racing Bella Burda and Catherine
Pagano because it had the potential to be a great race. I don't think I could
have felt better on race day so I wanted to run fast and get my qualifier. I
was mostly excited that I was able to negative split, and I think that my cross
country strength definitely benefitted me!
So
yeah I've had a pretty exciting December, but I'm really enjoying my time off
from running since I haven't had a significant break since summer. I hope that
my race at Bishop Laughlin is a small preview of what my winter season is going
to look like! My coach and I will be fully planning out my winter season in the
near future, but as of right now I'm looking forward to returning to the New
Balance Indoor Grand Prix mile, and of course the Millrose Games mile.
Happy
Holidays!
Marissa
:)
