Pilots 22nd at Nationals

The 2016 XC-season is over, and with that, my last XC-season as a Pilot has come to an end. No better way to end it than with a solid performance at Nationals. Of course I can’t be completely satisfied with finishing 111th (83rd if you get rid of the individual qualifiers), but I did what I could, I had so much fun out there, and I am so proud of my team. We finished 22th as a team, which probably would have been quite a bit better if we had been on full strength. Parkes is a standard top-5 contributor, but unfortunately had an important mandatory scholarship interview at the same day that Nationals took place. That ended up hurting us quite a bit: the only issue we had as a team all season was that we didn't quite have a strong enough 6th runner - our #5 now was over a minute back from #4. But finishing 22nd with an incomplete team is nothing to be ashamed of!

Last week at Regionals I had my worst race of the season, finishing 45th and only 5th for the team. Luckily my teammates Anna (28th) and Taryn (25th – last All-Region) stepped up big time and it was still more than enough to qualify for Nationals: we got 5th in the region and the top-6 teams ended up qualifying, because the numbers 3-6 had enough points from earlier meets. The guys had by far the best race of their season, finishing 2nd to automatically qualify for Nationals, which meant both teams would go on to Terre Haute.

With only 1 week in between there was not much I could do to turn things around, but Ian let me do whatever I felt like I wanted to do on Tuesday (which was 10x200 on/off in 37 sec/under 60 sec), which made me feel fresh, strong, and excited. We traveled to Terre Haute all day Wednesday, went to the banquet on Thursday which was a really fun experience, and raced Saturday morning. Although Thursday and Friday had been warm and sunny (tanktop-weather), on race-day it was extremely cold and windy: if you don't believe me, just look at the difference between the pre-race and post-race videos I posted at the bottom! We got out of our warm clothes the very last minute before the race started, but some of us were still frozen during it. It was incredible to run in this field, and unlike anything I have ever done before. I have ran in some pretty big races in the past but this was something else! I was passed a lot on the uphills, but was able to pass other girls on the downhills. Contrary to the last few races where I tended to kind of give up, I felt like I was engaged the entire time. Ian had told us the night before that it makes no sense to decide during the race if you are doing bad or well, but that there was only one thing that mattered: beating people in the second half. I tried my hardest to do just that, and am happy with the race I ran. Anna and Taryn also ran well and came in right behind me, while Lauren finished another incredible season with her third All-American performance. Mathilde, Courtney, and Grace finished it up for us.

I just want to thank everyone for the support we have received all season! From our teammates at UP who really made us feel like we were running not just for ourselves, but for the rest of the team back in Portland as well; all the former Lady Pilots who sent us encouraging messages; the athletic department, fellow students, and faculty at UP; the men’s team and RC who have been extremely supportive of the women doing so well (and finished 13th!!); and of course my friends and family at home.

Preliminary plans for Indoors have already been made (it has something to do with qualifying multiple girls for Nationals - I'll keep you updated!). But first it is time for at least a week off. It will be nice to celebrate the unique season we have had and feel like a normal person for a bit!

Pre-race video women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QODB_pJ7Ds
Pre-race video men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nH_L3ricTQ
Post-race video women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP1RjbfpMGw
Post-race video men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kORwNogJQlE