A New Season

Another cross season is upon us, and this one promises to be to be good! This is the most talented, prepared and deepest team East Peoria has had in a long time. The boys have put in more miles over the last 3 months than I certainly ever did in high school. We had a new challenge this summer, starting a 500, 750 and 1000 mile club over a 12 week period. They had till September 1 to get them in and I will have 5 over 500 and 2 over 750!

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Run-A-Thon, our fundraiser that is a continuous one mile loop at the course which the boys run for an hour (with out watches) and raise money for every mile they run. This was the last weekend we will have off before racing starts next week at the Canton Invite. The boys ran awsome! Kevin Eades smashed the record running 9.9 miles, Gill 9.5, Alex Cortes 9 (the biggest suprise of all) and a whole host of others at 8.5. I was really pleased with everybodys effort and on top of it they raised enough money to really look after us for the season.

The real suprise was the number of parents and supporters that showed up to cheer on the team yesterday. It is the first time since I arrived here 3 years ago that I had over half the teams parents out to watch. In my opinion that goes a lot further than any big race or 10 mile hour run. The class of freshman and sophmores in particular have a really supportive group of parents that I hope will stay involved.

Like I said our first race of the season in next weekend. Dyestat Il came out with their rankings and although I think we are a top 15 team in the state we didnt even get a mention. Thats the best thing that could have happened to us as the team is really fired up. Its not just me that wants the team to do well and not just one or two individuals, but the whole team is motivated as a group. Ah, the hard part is finally over, it only took me 3 years!!!

I will post pics from the fundraiser along with picks from next weeks race on my next blog. My running has had no signifigant developements in case anybody cares. Ive been running a little on the roads as the uneven surface of the course really bothers it. Ive been biking quite a bit to help me sleep, so there you go.

Thanks for reading and Go Raiders!

tb