STATE BOUND! What a week it was. As you probably know, if you are a high school track and field fan, last week was sectionals for us.
Our 4x800 team was seeded fifth with an 8:16, just one second off of qualifying. Coach really wanted us to make it to state since most of us were seniors on the relay. Our lead off runner, Aaron Schaidle, ran a PR of 2:04. He handed off to Luke Lahood who ran his PR of 2:04 also. Chris Fortin got the baton third and ran yet another PR in 2:04. I got the baton and the time read 6:13 and I knew all I had to do was run a 2:02 to get us to state. I went out fast trying to catch the two teams in front of me (Olympia and Metamora). I split about a 56 on the first lap and was closing in on them. I caught up to them at about the 100m to go mark but at that point I was running all out and they had pulled away with another gear. I saw the clock at about 50m to go and it read 8:03 and I knew then we had it in the bag so I cruised in to run a PR in the 4x800 of 8:10.4. Coach had my split at 1:56.4. The whole Peoria Notre Dame distance team was cheering when it happened. We were off to state!
Our 4x800 team was seeded fifth with an 8:16, just one second off of qualifying. Coach really wanted us to make it to state since most of us were seniors on the relay. Our lead off runner, Aaron Schaidle, ran a PR of 2:04. He handed off to Luke Lahood who ran his PR of 2:04 also. Chris Fortin got the baton third and ran yet another PR in 2:04. I got the baton and the time read 6:13 and I knew all I had to do was run a 2:02 to get us to state. I went out fast trying to catch the two teams in front of me (Olympia and Metamora). I split about a 56 on the first lap and was closing in on them. I caught up to them at about the 100m to go mark but at that point I was running all out and they had pulled away with another gear. I saw the clock at about 50m to go and it read 8:03 and I knew then we had it in the bag so I cruised in to run a PR in the 4x800 of 8:10.4. Coach had my split at 1:56.4. The whole Peoria Notre Dame distance team was cheering when it happened. We were off to state!
Since sectionals was on a time schedule, I recovered almost completely after that race to run in the open 800. I’m not sure how much rest I had but it was enough to run a 58 first lap and 58-second lap to get second with a 1:56.91. After that race, it was time to focus on the 4x400, which had shave off about six seconds to even hit qualifying standard. Our opening leg ran about 53 seconds, putting us last. Our second runner caught up to the field with a 51 second lap to put us in the mix of qualifying time. I then took the baton and split a 51 second lap. Our time at this point was 2:26 and our anchor would need to split about 50 seconds to get us to state. He ended up running 54 seconds, which put us at 3:30. We were not able to make it but we did end up beating our own school record by 1 second.
All in all, it was a great meet. The only bad thing was that it was in Macomb and that’s in the middle of nowhere really. We left a little before 11pm after our stop at McDonalds and I got home at about 12:30am in the morning. Oh yeah and if I forgot to mention, the meet was on a Thursday, which means I had school the next day. Let’s just say it wasn’t my most favorite class days. We did however end up going on an Emo’s run for practice which is a five mile run round trip to an ice cream place. Also, a bunch of former runners came back which made this week fun because I haven’t seen them in awhile.
On Sunday, the PND cross country/track team were to be at the Peoria Riverfront Marathon at 6am to hand out water at the two and seven mile markers. It was an early morning but it was fun to watch all the runners in the race. This week we have the PJ Star Honor Roll meet on Tuesday, which is the “best” athletes in the area. I say “best” because most of the time the guys side do not go all out because they don’t want to injure or hinder themselves going into state. I’m not running in the 800 because I really don’t need to do that before Friday. I will, however run in the 4x400 so that hopefully we can break our record even more. Wednesday, we leave for Charleston since coach is an official down there. Hopefully by Friday, I can get settled in and get some sleep in those uncomfortable bunk beds. This will be the last time I am running for PND. Give it all I got!