Another huge meet. 24 schools participating. My 7th grade daughter again ran in the 'C' level 2 mile event. She has a school friend that runs and consistently beats her in gym class but is on a CC team for a different high school so that had yet to race each other, until today.
My daughter is a pretty good kid so she expressed outrage when I asked her if there was any trash talking going on at school. "No! But, I want to beat her." I guess we can all live without the trash talking as long as we have the competitive attitude.
The race went off in what is now a familiar pattern with the group of 6 runners from my daughter's team all together and near the front (top 10) of a 255 person train at the half mile mark. The leaders had 20 yards, and the leader was her frienemy from school.
Dad's advice was simple. "You guys look great! Stay relaxed." I guess my daughter interpreted that to mean put on a ridiculous surge and catch the leaders right now because when we saw her again only 400 meters later she had caught the leaders and her friend and taken the lead.
I was worried for her, taking the lead so early. And, her shoe laces were untied. Uggh. They went through the mile in 6:35 her fastest first mile to date by more than 20 seconds. I had more concern that she might blowup. But when she came by me at 1 1/4 she looked great. Relaxed. Not breathing hard. Under no duress. In control.
I didn't get to see her for the next 1/2 mile but she maintained her lead and then extended it on a downhill with a 1/4 mile to go. From there she cruised home in her now trademark shuffle, not even bothering to sprint at the end. I'd liked to have seen her sprint home. I think all the fans would have liked that too. But she seems determined to run only as hard as she has to.
She finished in a time of 13:25, so her second mile was 6:50, a positive :20 second split, reversing the :20 second negative split from last week. I think she had more in her.
My daughter's neighbor, O, passed the frienemy with a terrific kick in the final straight to get second place. The rest of her team finished 4th, 5th and 9th for 21 points and first place. Rival Edina was in second but again their best 7th graders were running up at the JV 'B' level in this meet.
Apparently TJ tried to talk to her friend a bit when she caught her in the race, but "she didn't even look at me". I think that's hilarious because she was doing it to be friendly not psych out her friend and opponent. I tried to explain to her later that people do that as a psychological ploy to break the other person's will and she responded, "That's just mean. I was just saying 'Hi'."
One of the assistant coaches ambled over to have a chat. She was just shaking her head that TJ is winning these races and said "She doesn't even like to run. She's been asking me (the coach) when will Cross Country be over." Yeah, it's sad. And frustrating.
I keep hoping winning will make her like it more. But, there's no ball, or puck.
No comments:
Post a Comment