Well, it has been a few days since nationals and my trip to the west coat, but it seems like weeks ago. I don't even know where to start. I packed more into those 3 days in California than I would have ever imagined! Here's the quick recap.
Thursday- My coach and I left Weatherford about 11:00 for our 1:50 flight. Flying for that first time out of the OKC airport was amazing! I loved every minute of every flight that we had. The scenery was beautiful; we flew over the Rocky Mountains and into Salt Lake City where we had about an hour layover. Then, we flew into Ontario, California. Basically, we just found our hotel and went out to eat that night.
Friday- My coach had to declare me that morning, and then we decided to go check out the course. It was around this lake in a big park and actually pretty flat. The girls had to repeat a couple parts of the course and it was kind of curvy, but overall, the course was okay. My coach and I then decided to go explore Los Angeles. It took us a little over an hour to get into downtown where we stopped to eat and look around. We ate in the Downtown mall and then drove by Little Tokyo. We just explored around the town and had to head back for the coaches' technical meeting. After that, we went back to LA and went to Hollywood. We drove around Hollywood, just looking around. There really isn't much to see in the actual town, so we decided to drive into LA again. We drove up Sunset Boulevard and into Beverly Hills, just looking around. Then we went up Wilshire Boulevard to Rodeo drive. We stopped there and ate out at this little Brazilian restaurant and then went and looked in all the fancy shops. That was an experience I will never forget! After that, we wanted dessert, so we went to The Cheesecake Factory, and I ate the best cheesecake I ever had. Then there was a little more sightseeing and back to the hotel for bed. By the way, the traffic in LA was like nothing I had ever seen. It was unbelievably busy all the time!
Saturday- My race was at 11:00, so we got up and I ate a little breakfast about 8:00. Then we drove out to the course. I felt pretty good. I wasn't nervous or anything, just excited to be there. The weather was really hot, though. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was about 85 or so. I didn't feel like the heat was going to bother me. I wasn't thinking about it; however, it ended up getting to me. My stomach started to bother me as the race went on. Anyway, there were lots of people there cheering the runners on. Unlike any other cross country race I have ran in, there were tons of fans there dressed in body paint and really just going crazy with their support. It was so awesome to see that, even if none of them were cheering for me. I stayed really loose on the line and when the gun went off, I felt good. My first mile was faster than I would have liked, but everyone went out so fast. I went by the second mile feeling okay, but my stomach was definitely feeling sick. I knew that I had probably started out to fast, even though I stayed towards the back half for that first mile. I just told myself to finish the race as strong as I could. At almost the end of the race, there was a big hill that definitely hurt, but I tried to kick it in through the finish. All in all, I was pretty happy about my 47th place finish. I wanted to get in the top 50, even if my time wasn't great. After the race, I was feeling pretty sick, but I just walked around and cooled down. My coach and I decided to go to the beach because I had never seen the Pacific Ocean. We went to Venice Beach that afternoon and had an amazing time. The ocean was beautiful but very cold! We came back for the NCAA Championship banquet that night. The banquet was nice. They just recognized the top 4 teams and 15 individuals, hall of fame inductees, had a speaker, etc. By that time, my coach and I needed to pack, so we went back to the hotel. We would have to get up early for our 9:30 flight.
Sunday- My coach and I got up at about 5:30 to get ready for the flight. We flew out of California at 9:30, and I said goodbye to LA and the ocean from the plane. It was so cool to see all of LA and the ocean out of the plane window. California is a beautiful state and I had a great time, but I definitely would not want to live near LA. The traffic was horrible, and you can even clearly see the smog above the city. I guess I'm just a country girl at heart. Anyway, running at nationals and getting to travel to the west coast was an experience that I am extremely grateful for. I was able to do and see things that I have wanted to my entire life. It's so awesome to see how a year's hard work and preparation can pay off. Getting up at 5:00 every morning really was worth it! This journal seems so inadequate to describe everything I saw and did, but I hope that it gives you inspiration to know that hard work really does pay off. Keep on running strong and most of all-HAVE FUN!
*OKtrackXC.com thanks Rachel for writing a journal for us and congratulates her on a great national meet.