Marie is looking good...

Saturday, October 2, 2010

I began the day with good intentions, thinking that although I had a tremendous amount of running around to do, I’d figure some way to get in a workout…even though I was supposed to take a rest day.

It began with driving Holly and one of her clients to the airport for a trip to Milwaukee. She was going there for a conference for seven days and expecting that I would hold the house together in her absence. That meant meals, groceries, driving folks around, emergency money, and laundry issues. She did it all the time, but I didn’t even for a moment think that I’d do it as well…if at all. I knew I’d just put out fires as they burst to life from whatever smoldering embers where laying about.

I left her at the airport around 7:30 a.m. and from there, headed for the Wadsworth Grizzly Invitational Cross Country Meet. Marie was running there and would be competing against one of the top runners in the country. I was just looking for her to have a solid race…continuing to improve on past performances and pointing towards the only meet that really mattered…Regionals. It was this qualifying race that propelled the top 15 runners to the State Meet in Columbus on the first weekend in November. I have often told runners concerned about performances prior to the state meet that no one will ask them what they did on any given weekend leading to that race…provided they were there. She ran a solid race and was in fifth with a little over 400 meters to go and about 20 meters behind the fourth place runner…which is to say she would take fourth. When she suddenly accelerated, caught and passed that runner, it was as if her opponent was running in sand. She has amazing speed and continued her surge through the finish, opening a gap of about 40 yards between her and fifth. If she’s in contention…she will outrun anyone in the state over the last 200 meters of a cross country race. And yes…she has been gifted with tremendous speed and running ability…as many of her competitors have, but I think and coach that, without the expectation that you will achieve your goals, these gifts often do not transfer into exceptional performances. Marie believes in herself and knows that if she endures the pain and discomfort of staying in contention throughout the first 2.8 miles of the 5K cross country race, she will run down whoever is close over those last, critical meters. She set her goals for the season at the beginning of the summer, planned a training regimen that would have her prepared for the fall season, executed it, and went into the season with the expectation of reaching the state meet. Without these, she would be just another good runner who never came close. It’s still a little early, but she’s right on course for now.

It rained for most of the rest of the day and I gave up the idea of riding some time in mid-afternoon. I didn’t want to run a third day in a row just yet, so I took the day off I needed. I’d been walking a lot over the course of the day and was noticing the dull ache I always seem to have in my legs when I’ve been running a lot. Since I haven’t been running a lot, it surprised me to feel that way…but in retrospect, I’ve been trying to put in distances that pick up where I’d left off eight weeks ago. I’m in shape to do this because of all the cycling and hiking, but the legs are letting me know that they haven’t been running in some time. I should have expected it. Tomorrow though, I’ll feel better and, body permitting, I’ll do my longest run since the injury.