Wednesday November 16, 2005
Its 11:00 and I'm settling down for the night. Tomorrow we leave for ECU's first trip as a cross country team to nationals. I am almost packed and know this will be my last trip with the team. My senior year of cross country is almost over and after Saturday I will be an ECU cross country has-been. The 2 weeks since regionals have flown by, and now all of our miles of training are going to be put to the test at nationals. Tonight we decorated Coach Payne's office and car in celebration of her being voted Lone Star Conference and South Central Regional Coach of the year. This is a great honor for her and she deserves it. She is the foundation of our team and I don't think she realizes how much everyone looks up to her. She is an amazing coach, teacher, and friend to all of her runners and leads by example for everyone to follow. I guess its time to make the plunge into bed for the night; tomorrow we have 6:30am practice.
Thursday November 17, 2005
Today I got up at 6:00 for 6:30am practice. It was 31 degrees, the coldest it's been this year. We haven't had much cold weather this season; I can only remember once when I was cold enough to wear a long sleeve shirt to run in. Today was an easy fartlek worked and everyone stayed together for the most part. Everyone was excited about the upcoming trip and we joked around the whole run. I am ready for Saturday to get here, but until then I will have to control my nerves. As I think about the race on Saturday I know this is what we all have worked for and look forward to setting a PR. We are making history for the ECU CC team and that equally excited as the upcoming race. I am looking forward to traveling as a team all day today, we will leave OKC at 1:50 and arrive in CA at 7:30…that's a long time considering they are 2 hours behind us so we would actually be arriving at 9:30 central time. Today is some members of the team first time to take a trip on a plane…so I am just going to sit back and enjoy the show as they eagerly await takeoff. Well, I better got finish packing.
*Sandy, from Decatur, Texas, is a senior for the tigers. He finished 9th at the Lone Star Conference Meet which earned him All-Conference honors. OKtrackXC.com thanks Sandy for writing for us and wishes him good luck along with the rest of East Central in Pomona, CA this Saturday.