Peoria Notre Dame track made history this past week. As a team, we only had one meet, but it was a big meet against our rival, Richwoods High School. The rivalry between the schools is huge regardless of the sport. They crush us in football every year, basketball is usually closer (this year we beat them twice which ended up as a big surprise) and soccer and cross-country we always win. No matter the sport though, there is that determination to beat them bad or in the case of football, not get beat by a ton. Unfortunately, we always lose to them in track, at least during my years at PND. Not only do we get beat, but we get completely swept in the field and sprint events. Our distance team is decent so we normally sweep the 800 – 3200.
This year, the meet was on Tuesday and I was in four events, the 4x800 (anchor), 800m, 1600m, and the 4x400 (3rd leg). When I got the baton in the 4x8 we were down by almost a half a lap, so my coach called me off and I cruised in using the race as a warm-up. It really helped when it was time for me to run the open 800m. I won and I ran the fastest ever in my racing flats. (I have yet to spike up besides indoor). My time was 2:02.5. I didn’t have much rest before the mile so I did what I could to get ready. I went out extremely slow. I led for the first lap setting an extremely slow first lap so that someone else could break the wind. After a few people passed me, I settled in and drafted for the next 2 laps. On the last lap, I just surged passed everyone, winning the race easily in a 4:57. The 4x4 was last and there wasn’t much break for me. Keep in mind I still have yet to spike up for any races. Richwoods always crushes us in the 4x4, it’s ‘their’ event. As a team, we ran extremely well. Everyone ran under 55 seconds and my time was 54.1. Our 4x4 time was 3:36.9, which is 2.1 seconds off the school record! We beat the Richwoods 4x4 team for the first time since I can remember. It was a good quadruple for me. The PND team scored a total of 59 points and Richwoods scored 81. Even though we lost the meet I’m pretty sure we managed to lose by the least amount than ever before. It was the closet dual meet score between PND and Richwoods in history!
This past week was probably one of my longest weeks in terms of mileage as I am still building my base. The day after the meet, coach surprised us with a nine mile run. It was supposed to be at a recovery pace but we were going fast. The day after was another long run for me at seven miles and from the three to four mile marker we were supposed to pick up the pace to a six min/mile but unknowingly to any of us, we ran a 5:20 mile. Friday was a track workout and it was chilly and windy out. My hands got cold fast and hurt. We ran 800m then 400m alternating three more times. Instead of running the last 800m, however, coach decided to change it to two individual 400s because our 400s looked better. My average 800 was 2:25 and my average 400 was 64s. It was a good workout overall. I ended up running 43 total miles.
Saturday was the ACT, and my third time taking it and hopefully, third time is the charm. I’m hoping for an even better score and some scholarship money. I felt good about it overall and my head hurt after as usual. I ended up running later in the day for an hour. It was a pretty long day to say the least.
The only meet we have this week is the Metamora ABC meet and I get to spike. Finally, I have an actual big meet. I’m hoping to break two minutes this week. Thanks again for reading my blog!