Four Penguins Head to State C

On Friday, October 14th, we attended the Harlem Invitational.

It was a nice crisp morning with a little bit of a breeze, just the kind we like! After a hard week of practice, the girls were ready for their final regular season meet. This one really lets me know if they are ready for the state meet. We've been working on consistency the last three weeks and I was anxious that they would do well.

The Harlem course is a very flat course to run, so we adjusted our splits accordingly. This is a great opportunity for the girls to really push their cadence and see how fast they can get each mile without burning out before the end of the race. It's not an easy course, no course is easy if you run it correctly. Every race should be hard.

Shelbi and Sammi jumped out a little harder than usual and did a great job of gaining a position early. Ava followed behind and started out nice and relaxed. I waited for them at mile one, a lot of the front runners had extremely fast first miles. Shelbi and Sammi have become very controlled runners and are able to hold back on that first mile so their final two splits are consistent. They came around at about a 6:35 mile which is exactly where we wanted to be. Ava came around at about a 9-minute mile, we'd like to be around an 8:30. But that's okay, she was looking good and focused on her second mile.

The next time I saw the girls, they had about 800 meters left to go. Right when Shelbi rounded the corner she looked at me and smacked her side. Her side was hurting again that last mile. I just said, "nope, gut it out!". I knew she would be able to finish without it affecting her race. She ended with a great PR for the season of 19.32 and finished in 5th place.

Sammi wasn't too far behind her, about 200 meters. She was looking strong and in good spirits as usual. She always has a thumbs up or a big smile to give. She had a strong finish and ended with another phenomenal PR of 19.53 in 6th place. I knew she could get into the 19's. It seems to just put a runner into a whole new mindset when they break 20 minutes. We weren't sure she had broken it until we were in the gas station ready to leave town and we all started yelling and giving high fives. I'm sure everyone in there thought we were nuts.

Ava brought up the finish behind Sammi. I think she was feeling sluggish and not quite herself. She ended strong on her last 400 meters and is always in great spirits after her runs. She told me she's ready to have a recovery week and be ready to give it her all at state. We kind of had the same experience last year going to Harlem and she went to state and ran great. She came in 31st with a time of 29.17.

Kendra of course was right by my side the whole race cheering the girls on. She's going to tough it out at state and finish with her team. She's had a rough year with injury and is determined to get through the finish line in Missoula.

All of the other teams in Harlem also competed well. It was a blast to watch everyone have such a successful meet. Congrats to all of the athletes. We head to Missoula on Friday and have a course walk-through at 4 pm. Class C girls race at 1:45 pm on Saturday, so stay tuned! Good luck to all of the local teams headed to Missoula!