Lady Penguins Run In Great Falls

We headed to the Great Falls XC Invite on Friday, September 29. Ava Hanley had a week of battling the crud that is going around so she stayed home to rest up and be ready for this upcoming week. Shelbi LaBrie was our only runner for the day and planned to compete with the Varsity group of A/AA runners. They sectioned the races off into two different groups of competitors, JV & Small Schools and then Varsity & Challengers. I thought Shelbi's times could get her into the Varsity race so she was placed into the first heat of the Varsity races. They broke up the Varsity girls into three separate groups all following each other at 10-minute increments.

The Great Falls course at Anaconda Hill's Golf Course is known to be the "hardest course in the state". It certainly does not disappoint. It is a winding course of long uphill stretches starting in mile one and ending at the very end of the race, there are no breaks. Teams don't go here for time, they go to this race to push their kids to the limits. It was a beautiful day to run, 65 degrees and a light breeze. Great Falls is about 1,000 feet higher than our usual elevation. The race starts on an uphill right off the bat. Shelbi had a goal of 6.30 for her first mile and hit it right on the head. She was however battling with a side ache so I told her to pull off a little bit and just hold on. She was sitting in 2nd place with quite a gap from the 3rd place runners so I was hoping she could dig deep and keep her position. She did just that, working hard on the uphills and trying to relax on the downhill. The first-place runner, a talented runner from Big Sky, was about 100-200 yards ahead of her from that point forward. She never gained too much more than that from Shelbi. She was able to push through the rest of the course, hurting pretty bad, and able to keep her form looking strong. Her finish was great and she ended with a time of 22.01 in 2nd place in her heat of 27 runners. Overall, she placed 15th out of 69 runners.

I was very impressed with her performance but of course, she is always hungry for more. She knows she could have run better if she wasn't struggling with her side again. It was fun to watch some of those kids that compete for bigger schools, they were all very excited for Shelbi at the end of the race, coming over and congratulating her on how well she did. Not something you see in every sport. One of my favorite parts of cross country is the support the athletes get from all of the other competitors.

This week we have one of our favorite races, the Malta Invitational! To everyone that has a couple of hours to spare this Saturday, please come support our local runners. They do not get the credit they deserve for all of the hard work they put in during the season. It's a great course and you can see quite a bit of the race from the clubhouse. Good luck to everyone coming to compete!