Aisling Cuffe's MileSplit.us Journal #6
Hello everyone, and Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is enjoying their day off from school. I am just relaxing all day. I went for a run earlier, and it was very cold out for November (mid 30s). I hadn’t thought it would be that cold, so I only went out in 2 layers. I was rudely surprised. What made up for the temperature was the snow! I guess it wasn’t really snowing, as the snow was not sticking to the ground, and it was falling very lightly. But just seeing the white flakes falling from the sky made the day feel like Christmas, even if it’s only Thanksgiving. I am officially deeming today the first snowfall of the winter season in Cornwall. I hope this early snow is not an indicator of worse things to come in the following months…
Well, I only have to talk about my most recent week of running, because I wrote my last journal not too long ago. I left off at the New York State Championships last time, so I will pick up my story there. After states, I had a decent week of training. It would have been a perfect week, except I had a large knot in my lower back. Anyone who had ever had a knot in their muscle knows that knots are very weird, for lack of a better word. They don’t stop you from running hard, but you feel it in every step you take! I don’t get knots very often, so I didn’t have any indicator to point to with blame. I narrowed the possibilities down to 1) driving to school (I have heard that by driving, you put an extra strain on the muscles up your right leg); 2)the steep downhill runs at my county meet, section meet, and state meet (I guess when I run downhill, I tend to arch my back oddly, which my coaches said could be a factor); and 3)My nightly ab/core exercises (when I do sit ups, my right leg flicks up almost violently to propel me up… which I guess is technically cheating… ssshhhh! My right back muscles could have been affected, but I have been doing sit ups like this for 2 years, so this was more of an unlikely cause). The scientific approach would have been to remove one variable at a time to find the true cause. However, I didn’t have the patience, so I stopped driving myself to school, and I stopped my night exercises, and I massaged the muscle every night for the week. Needless to say, the knot went away. Unfortunately, I will be left with eternal curiosity as to what was the source of the knot. Oh well.
The knot went away just in time for the New York State Federation Championships. I was definitely more nervous than usual for this meet. All year long, and last year, I had really wanted this course record. As course records go, this was the holy grail to me. The course record at Bowdoin had been set during one of the many highly anticipated battles between Nicole Blood of Saratoga and Aislinn Ryan of Warwick, with Nicole Blood coming out on top with the record. These two runners were unbeatable in the state and feared across the nation. I realized that getting this record would be a huge undertaking, and I was worried that I was going to hurt so much during the race trying to get it, that I would lose the record over the final stretch. This was my last chance, and I couldn’t mess anything up. But no pressure or anything. I went out somewhat conservatively for the first half mile or so, just so I wouldn’t think I wasted energy. But after that, I turned on the burners. I pushed the pace the rest of the way, and was able to pick up the pace for the last kilometer around the field. My coaches decided to purposefully not call out my splits until coming down to the last 400m, when they knew I had the record. I generally do not like being surprised like this, but looking back on it now, I guess I have to appreciate it. When I go for a record on the track, I can depend on splits to lead me to my goal. I depend on cross country splits the same way, except in cross country, splits don’t work the same way. I knew in the back of my head that if I heard an off split, I would definitely become disheartened. As annoyed as I was during the race, I think the lack of splits made me push harder. I heard one key split from a stranger in the crowd with 1000m to go, and thankfully it had been a time that I recognized from my pace chart. It was the first split I heard during the whole race, so I was very relieved to hear that I still had a shot at the record.
When the race was over, I was very happy with my 17:16, a new course record by 10 seconds! I had never thought anyone would ever break 17:20 on Bowdoin, so to see it done before my very eyes was one of the greatest feelings I have ever experienced. This race was a great way to end my cross country season in a Cornwall uniform. I was a little sad when I realized this was the last time I would be wearing that singlet for a cross country race, but there was no better last race to wear it for. And for this I am thankful that everything worked out!
The past week of running has been geared towards the last two meets of the year. I am very excited that the season is winding down, but I am also sad that it is ending so soon. I love high school cross country, and while college will be fun, the confusing, hilly, zigg-zaggy high school cross country courses are nowhere to be had on the college scene. The next race coming up for me is the Foot Locker Northeast Regional, which I am very excited about. I have been racing New York competition all season long, so I can finally see how I stack up against every other runner in the Northeast. I am looking forward to seeing all the girls from the Northeast team last year at the meet, as well as meeting all of the new faces that may qualify this year. Sunken Meadows will be tough like always, but I can’t count how many times I have been to that course, so I think by now I can manage cardiac hill pretty well.
Well, that’s all for now. Good Luck to everyone competing in all of the various national qualifiers this weekend. I can’t wait to get home Saturday evening to look up all of the Foot Locker qualifiers! But first I have a race to run… and a turkey to eat!
Me finishing at Feds, with a new course record! Thanks to Tom McTaggart for sending this picture to my coaches.
My teammate Michelle, my sister Dara, a Nike Guy, and me forming 17:16 at Feds. Thanks to the Nike Spike bus crew for taking the picture!
Coach Creeden, me, and Coach Feuer… 3 very happy people after Feds!
Congrats to all the girls who finished in the top 10 at Feds; NY is one of the hardest states for accomplishing this feat! Special congrats to Brittany, only the 7th girl ever to break 18 minutes at Bowdoin, and Laura and Maria, two of the fastest freshman runners I have ever seen!
