Hi, my name is Liz Cox. I run Cross Country and Track and Field for Palatine High School. I run any event 300 meters and up, but I specialize in the 4x800 meter relay and the 1600 meter run. I also throw discus outdoors and am willing to do pretty much any event. I haven’t quite decided where I will be going to college next year, but I am getting close (more on that in another post). I’ve enjoyed reading a lot of the athlete blogs in the past, especially the ones written by Skylar Bollinger, my former teammate Tess Wasowicz, Rachel Devereux, and Mr. Doug Ackerman. I’ll try to live up to the high standards they have set.
Our team doesn’t start track practice until January 27, but most of the girls on the team have been running or working out. We have a winter running club at our school called Polar Bear where a lot of us get together and run, including kids from other sports and activities. Some of us on the team also run on Saturday mornings with a local running club called H.I.P. Athletic Assn. (Hoffman, Inverness, Palatine, Barrington—the B didn’t fit in the acronym).
Unfortunately, our school does not have an indoor track or any other good facility for running inside, so we workout outside all winter long. It can be especially tough on nasty, cold days or times when we are trying to do a fast workout but there is ice everywhere including the track. Somehow we always manage to get the job done. There is a street near our school called Mill Valley that is 800 meters long and usually relatively ice free. We lovingly call this “Track Mill Valley” and we do a lot of our winter workouts here. On certain days, when the sprinters and distance runners and boys and girls are all doing workouts out there, it really does have some of the bustle and excitement (not to mention shortage of open lanes to run in) of a real track.
In addition to finding places to run, not having an indoor track has made us especially good at handling the cold. Admittedly, we struggle to practice block starts, relay handoffs, hurdles and field events. However, outdoor training has made our team even stronger in an area I think we already excel: being mentally tough and ready to run in all sorts of conditions. But we’ve also had to learn how to be prepared with our wardrobe choices. I think wearing a warm pair of high socks (I often wear Smart wools) can make all the difference in warmth and I have helped spread the trend across the team. A lot of the girls on the team have also invested in a pair of high quality running gloves or mittens. On super cold days you can’t be afraid to pull out all the stops by wearing multiple pairs of tights, layers upon layers on top, and maybe even a scarf or face mask to protect against the wind.
With that said, I want to send a shout out to all those runners out there young and old who, like my team, are braving the nasty Midwest winter to get in their runs. This also begins something I’m going to make a segment on this blog called “Weekly Shoutouts”. This will just be a time to recognize anyone in the world of Illinois Track and Field who does something exceptional. Other shout outs this week go to all the Illinois high school track and field athletes competing in pre-season meets across the country. Particularly outstanding performances include: 400 meter runners Briyahna Desrosiers Chicago North Lawndale) and Brittny Ellis (Warren) putting up some blistering times, Cahokia jumper Ja’Mari Ward leaping state championship type distances, Aurora West hurdler Emma Spagnola, and so many of the top sprinters . Way to make Illinois proud!