Well, the season has finally come to a close and in a dramatic one none-the-less. The girls closed the season with a 10th place finish at the state meet in the 4x800 and the boys finished on a high note with one state qualifier and a boat load of pr's.

On the girls side of things we qualified for the state meet in the 4x800 running a season best of 10:02 to finish second at the sectional meet. Emily Gustafson, who was sick at the time, then came back to win the 1600. Our time coming into the meet placed us 16th overall but I knew the girls had at least 10 seconds to drop once they got into the heat of competition, and they did just that. Freshman stud Autumn Andrews who was running only her third race of the year due to an on going foot injury lead of with a monster first leg of 2:21, handing off in the lead! Rookie Rachel Innes then held her ground running 2:29 and maintained our first position to hand off to the other sophmore Ashley Schmitt. Ashely ran for her life and kept the stick in the top seven, running her fastest leg of the year clocking 2:35. Veteran Emily Gustafson moved up 3 positions over the last lap to crush our season best running 9:49 and qualifying for the finals by 1 place!

The finals went as expected for the relay, other than Autumn Andrews running 2:21 to hand off in first place. Innes and Schmitt held on to tie their pbs from the day before and Emily Gustafson got the baton just a bit to far behind to get us back in medal contention. They did run another season best and the second fastest time in school history of 9:48. Although they were a little bummed that they missed a medal by one place, I think that they know in their hearts that they ran as good as they could have. Hopefully it will be motivation to train like crazy this summer ; )

Emily Gustafson came back off the relay to win her heat of the 1600, running 5:16. The final did not go quite as planned as she is still learning how to run a championship type mile. There was a lot of bumping and when the pace picked up at the 800 she never really responded. She still hung on for a 7th place finish which was good enough for her first All State medal!

On the boys side of things Hugh Gill was the suprise of the year. He ran a personal best of 4:28 to qualify for the state meet! We knew he was in sub 4:30 shape it was just a matter of being in the right race on the right day. Coming into the state meet he was seeded 20th out of 30 and top 12 make the finals. We drew heat 1 and the only advise I could give him was pin your ears back and run with the leaders, and he did just that. He finished 4th in his heat in a time of 4:29 to sneak into the finals with the last time! The finals went pretty much as planned and our plan was to stay in the back for 800 and then get into medal position at some point so we could at least say we went for it. Hugh managed to get into 8th place but with 300 to go two kids got around him and he ran a hard fought 10th place, one spot from the podium : ( But I believe it is a great way to finish off a hard earned season and build into the last summer of his high school career. More importantly it brings a new level of commitment to the team and there has been such a remarkable shift in attitude with this group over the last 9 months.

That is the short story long folks. I just finished up with a long week of helping make the Steamboat Classic a world class event. I havent been to bed before 1 am for the last week so I am looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet. I did a little running with the boys last week, their first real week of summer training. Im still grinding it out on the bike as well when I get mornings away from things. When I get results and stories from the race on practice Wednesday I will post them as I havent gotten a chance to talk to any of the boys. I did see that most of them ran really well, especially the ones that ran the 15k!

Go Raiders!

Championship Season Is Here!

A lot has happened since I last updated everybody. The distance boys are running prs every meet, most of my best female distance runners are hurt, I am back to running a bit, I helped put on a ultra for troubled troubled people and my truck was trashed on prom night!

First off, anybody that decides to run for 150 miles one a muddy 10 mile loop at 15 minute per mile pace has serious mental issues. Let me do the math for you, thats 50 hours of running...MENTAL! A friend fo mine puts on the McNaughtin Ultra so I decided to go out and help. It ended up raining over an inch the night of and all day during the first day. So needless to say it was an absolute nightmare. Fortunately nobody suffered any major injuries, just a lot of "my legs started cramping after the first 24 hours." MENTAL.

We have had qute a few meets over the last week and it would take an hour to update everybodys successes. Just a few shout outs. Freshman stud Kevin Eades has gotten his 2 mile time down to 10:20 and I see a sub 10 in his very near future. Hugh Gill has his 3200 time down to 10:05 and we are hoping for a sub 9:50 which will qualify him for the state meet. Sophmore goof Cody Margetis has found his niche running a huge split to win our fresh/soph meet running a 6 second pr of 56! Probably one of the highlights of the year. David Blackford (pictured below leading the chase pack for second) ran a big pr of 2:04 in the 800. Soph Alex Cortes got nipped at the Tim Broe F/S Invite for the win running 4:48. To make it short I now have 6 sub 5 minute milers and hopefully a 7th Friday night.

The girls has been a whole different story. Cassie Lohmeier has been battling IT band issues and is done for the year. Emily Gustafson is running well but has a serious calf problem and the conference meet is 48 hours away. Rachel Innes, the suprise of the year, has a strained lower back and is iffy for Thursday nights conference meet. On a positive, freshman stud Autumn Andrews' foot is healing and she ran a big pb Friday on 2:27 and 61. Ashley Schmitt also ran great last week, running a pb of 5:44.

The big story of the week though was me waking up to find my truck trashed the morning after Prom. After doing a little investigating, it appears the girls dates must have been really boring because they decided to pay me a visit. As if seran wrap and mushed bananas werent enough, they thought a bag of flower in a rain storm would be a nice way to cap the night off! After a little scalding, I did tell them that I am honored they were thinking of poor coach Broe on the biggest social night of their lives. Ah, high school girls ; )

Thats all I got for you now. I have gotten the runs up to 5-6 miles but the foot pain continues. We now officially in championship season so I will keep everybody posted on all our Raider success!

tb

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!

tb

Indoor State Meet

The Lady Raider track team came one step closer to becoming a threat for a relay title Friday night at the Illinois State Indoor Championships. Coming in as the 4th seed in the 4x800, we ended finishing 12th against a very strong field. Senior stud Emily Gustafson gave a great lead off leg handing off in 3rd place. Rookie sophmore Rachel Innes ran a superb leg, holding 4th position and running a PB of 2:36. In her first track season Junior Marley Brimberry, filling in for an injured Autumn Andrews, was a little unnerved by the energy of the crowd and the stiff competition. The hard working sophmore Ashley Schmitt got the baton quit a bit out of the competition but still ran a PR leg of 2:43 to put us in 12th.

Emily Gustafson, seeded second, came back to finish 4th in the mile. After waiting around for a 3 hour delay, Emily got out great. Three laps into the race she got a little bump and didn't respond when the pace picked up. From there she fell back to 8th and trailed the leaders by 30 meters. But with 100 meters to go she found a gear shes never had before. With a freshman-like crazy big finish she battled back to fourth place, just missing third. Afterward she could read my body language and said "I cant believe how much I had left!" and I wont repeat my reply. Needless to say the consistent winter training is paying off and she needs to start learning how to race with all the new tools she has developed. She did run another school record of 5:22 and got a great feel for what it is like to race at the next level.

I am still putting away with my running. Just 15-20 minutes a day as the achey pain in my left big toe is giving me problems. My podiatrist, Dr. Grady, says it is still going to take some time to clear it all up as it was so full of scar tissue for so long.

We are headed west to the Moline Invite next Saturday for our first outdoor meet of the season. I am really looking forward to seeing how junior Hugh Gill and some of the others will run after a consistent stretch of winter training. Coming off a winter of IT band tendonitis, junior star Cassie Lohmeier will also make her 2009 track debut in the 3200. Freshman ace Autumn Andrews will also be back running after missing the state indoor meet with tendonitis in her foot.

Hopefully next time I write we will have banked a wholebunch of prs and my foot will be feeling a little better! Go Raiders

tb

Hello all. Just writing to give everbody an update on my foot and the indoor season. I started my 10 minute a day routine last week with much anticipation. Although my toe still aches pretty much all the time, the Dr. thought it was time to start using the thing. I never thought that a 10 minute run on a track at 9 minute pace with toe pain could be so enjoyable! The last few days of running has made me realize how much running helps me stay sane. I have never considered myself a "runnaholic" or really a true athlete for that matter. In fact, for years running always ranked about number 10 on my list of things I want to do when I wake up every morning. But not until the last 6 months did it ever hit me how much stability and direction running gives me. Anyhow, long story short, I am really glad to be back to doing something productive.

On the coaching side of things, we had our second indoor meet of the season last Friday. Despite a lot of colds and nagging injuries there were a lot of improvements on the week before. The girls ran a state indoor qualifying time on the way to winning the 4x800. Senior stand out Emily Gustafson then ran the third best time in the state to win the 800. She also showed up to school a few days later and was inducted into the National Honor Roll Society. Sophmore Cody Margetis ran a 10 second pb to anchor our 4x800 of 2:15 to finish 2nd place. He then came back to take his first win ever in his heat of the mile, running a pb of 5:15! David Blackford ran a huge pb on his leg of the relay, running 2:07 then came back in the open 800 to finish a tough second place. There were a lot honorable mentions, as the kids all ran their butts off. We have such a young talented crew that are just starting to figure out how much fun track can be when you are trained and confident. We had this weekend off and ran a tough workout yesterday (5x1000) and have the next two weekeds off before we run the state indoor meet.

Thats all I have for now. I will try to get some more pictures up next week. I really would like to get some video out for you all so you can get an idea of how much work we have to do in our running drill that we started 3 weeks ago. Its amazing how hard it is to teach and learn how to run properly/efficiently. I am hoping to save that video and do another at the end of the season and show them how bad they looked at the beginning of the season! Take care and Go Raiders

tb

The Season Has Begun!

Well, after a long cold winter the season is finally here. We opened up at the Grey Ghost Invite last Friday with a great start. I didnt expect much being that we have only been doing tempo runs and fartleks on the road, but there were a lot of suprises. Freshman Rachel Innes won her flight of the 800 in 2:43. What was even more impressive is that she has never ran track! She could be some real help in getting our 4x800 to the state meet.

Senior David Blackford opened up with his first indoor meet ever with a 2:09, good enough for second place. What is really exciting about David is that he has had a stress fracture every track season that I have had him.

Junior Hugh Gill opened up with a 4:49 mile, which was about 13 seconds off where I thought he should be, but still not a bad opener. We just need to work on his racing tactics, plus I think I may have worked him a little too hard last week. No worries though, we are getting ready for the state meet in 3 months. Last but not least, Emily Gustafson opened up with a 5:28 mile, breaking the school record by 3 seconds along the way. Like Hugh Gill, it was a good start, but quite a bit slower that we were hoping for. But being that they decided at the last minute to combine the two heats and throw 42 girls out onto an indoor track for a mile and we didnt even get a chance to do a stride, I will take it.

I just got back from seeing the very, very, very awesome Dr. John Grady in Chicago and the foot is doing pretty well. I have been given the clearance to start running in two weeks time---just in time for spring!!! I should have gotten a picture of me squirming while he hammered my toe with some sort of midieval torture device that is supposed to break up scar tissue. Thank God I am tough as nails. A normal human being would have cracked from the intense pain, but I just smiled and asked for more. (anybody that knows me knows how low my pain threshold is ; )

Thanks for reading and GO RAIDERS!

tb

Back on My Feet!

Well folks, I am now almost 6 weeks post foot op. and everything seems to be going as planned. I visited Dr. Grady in Chicago last week and he said everything is going according to plan. I did not realize, until I saw him then, just how bad off my foot really was. There was a cyst in the bone, a trapped nerve locked up in scar tissue, scar tissue inside the joint and a half my remaining sesmoid bone was dead. Lucky me, no wonder I would get pain all over my body just trying to do an easy 5 mile run. I would post a picture of my freaky foot, but I dont want to make anybody sick! So long story short, I will be back on the stationary bike in two weeks.

The kids are running pretty good at the moment. I have incorporated a whole new running drill/hurdle drill session into our program and everybody seems to really be responding to it good. Most importantly, it shuts them up and makes them focus when we are in the gym. I have also revamped the core routine and made it twice as dynamic and difficult. Im not sure why I have been babying them for so long. But being that we dont really get the intensity and duration of training out of our running that I would like, due to the weather and running on the roads, I feel like this is a great time to hit the gym harder and get us prepared for the outdoor season. We have a meet coming up on Feb 20 so I will get some pictures up from that. I am going to try to set up my video camera in the gym tomorrow and get some footage of the kids doing these drills so 1. you can see what we are up to and 2. they can look back in 3 months time and see how far they have progressed.

Well, thats all I got for you for now. Happy training and GO RAIDERS!!!

tb