Hello again everybody. Sorry it took me a few days to get this out there, but Ive been busy moving and doing the Easter thing.
Last week was the beginning of the outdoor season at the Moline Invite and the kids did not dissappoint. We were short quite a few, but those that ran performed great. Although she was sick, Emily Gustafson (seen in photos) ran a season pr of 5:22 in the mile and a great lead-off leg of the 3rd place 4x800. She is finally starting to see the benefits of consistent longer runs over the last year. I am hoping to see her down under 5:10 by the end of the season. Cassie Lohmeier ran a 2:30 anchor leg of the 4x800 for her first race of the season. She is coming off an IT band injurt all winter, but is still capable of placing in the State Finals and helping our 4x800 team win a title. She also won a close 3200 Tuesday at our conference triangular meet. Suprise sophmore Rachel Innes also ran a great leg on the 4x800 (2:35) then coming back and placing second in her first outdoor 800 ever. She also ran a top conference time of 57 for her first 3oo hurdle race. More importantly, she stayed vertical for the whole race! Ashley Schmitt opened with a 2:40 leg of the relay and ran a pb in the mile of 5:50. And finally, Autumn Andrews opened her outdoor season with a 228 and 62 after a winter layoff with an ongoing foot problem.
The boys also ran great last week. Junior star Hugh Gill started his season off with a win in the 3200, running a big pb of 10:18. State qualifying is 9:49, which is what we are working towards. Keving Eades, state xc qualifier, got his first races of the year in after an injury as welll. He won his heat of the 3200 and the 1600. Freshman Cody Lacross ran a pr in the mile of 5:41 and ran 12:00 for his first 3200 ever. What is great about Cody is that he is the only kid out of 13 that voluntarily runs the 2 mile for me every meet!
That is all I really have to report on the track side of things. I am still at my 30 min a day and the foot pain is still lingering. Deep throbbing and aching would be another way to put it, but I am trying to be positive. Im headed back to see the Doc in a few weeks, but am assuming that I will get the old standard "Its gonna take a while to heal up". Im really looking forward fort the warm up this week so I can get back on the bike and start burning all my anxious energy.
We will be racing 3 times this week and twice next so I hope to have plenty of good news to report. Go Raiders!
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