Wow.
What a weekend we had at the Gina Relays at Hillsdale College, MI! 5 provisional marks in 2 days! Not bad :)
We unfortunately started off the trip with one of our guys having to race the 10K at 2 pm on Friday in 85+ degree heat. My Coach thought it may have even been 90 down on the track. Absolutely brutal conditions, especially for such a long distance race. Props to him for getting through that race. I was lucky enough to get to race the 10K at around 10 pm that night, once the sun had gone down, and the winds died down as well. It was around 70 at race time, which is still a little warm for my liking, but it was cool compared to earlier that day, that's for sure! I discovered a little more than half way through the race that I had not eaten enough that day to sufficiently provide me energy for a 10K. I'm not sure why I didn't eat more - I guess maybe I wasn't used to racing so late? I ended up able to hang on and finish 4th with a 36:11, so I improved my time from Slippery Rock. It still wasn't the time I was shooting for, but after feeling pretty dizzy during the race I was happy to have finished and hopefully that time will hold up to send me to Nationals.
The real story of that Friday night was Ms. Ashley Graybill. She continued her insane track domination by running a 4:34 1500, over an 11 second PR from the first time she ever ran the event 2 weeks prior. She now has 3 nearly automatic NCAA qualification marks in the 400, 800, and 1500. I'm really not sure how she does it. She just amazes me, week in and week out!
Saturday was another great day for SNC track! Dann Schneider nearly auto'd in the 400 meter dash with an insanely fast time of 47.71 seconds. He is now ranked 2nd in the country in this event!!!! He followed up his 400 with another blazing effort of 21.74 seconds in the 200 meter dash, again provisionally qualifying him for Nationals. Ashley improved her time to 2:11.33 in the 800 meter dash, bringing us to our total of 5 provisional marks in Hillsdale!!!
Also definitely noteworthy are the efforts of John Barrett and Emily Schudrowitz. John busted out a 7 second PR in the 1500 with time of 4:04, and Emily ran a 2:17 800, also a PR! Provisional marks, PR's, and cookies seemed to be the story of our weekend. Yes, cookies. It's always an adventure with guys who have metabolisms even faster than their times. Between Alex, Dann, and John, I believe somewhere around 20 (maybe even more?) chocolate chip cookies from our hotel were consumed. Looks like we're going to need to find more hotels that serve cookies in the future - seemed to be their ticket to fast times! ;)
For their performances over the weekend, Dann and Ashley were both named Midwest Conference Performers of the Week. Congrats to both of them - only slightly deserved honors! :)
All in all, it was a very successful weekend and we'll definitely look to duplicate those performances in a little over a week at the MidwestConference meet at Carroll University! The men and women will both look to improve upon our perfomance at last year's meet where we both finished 3rd. With injuries, it's not going to be easy, but one thing is for sure: we'll be ready to perform at our best.
This weekend, we'll be at the University of Wisconsin Open. It'll be a tune-up for most of us to gear up for next week's big races. Some people will need to get their times down for seeding purposes for Conference, so we'll hope for good weather to help achieve those needed times.
One quick photo story: below you'll see a picture of us all next to a sign for O'Brien's. Coach turned around special after he saw this sign just so we could stop and get a photo next to it. Why you may ask? We have an incredible teammate, Jon O'Brien (probably one of the nicest, & most unique guys you'll ever meet) and to honor him and give him a laugh we snapped a picture with a sign for his very own restaurant. Upon seeing the photo, JOB commented that "I'm everywhere!" Yes, Jon O, you sure are. :)
It's nice to FINALLY be running without gloves, hats, and tons of layers on. Hopefully these next few weeks we can continue to have warm weather, little rain, and calm winds! (hey, I can dream, right?) Between Conference, finals, and Nationals, it's going to be a crazy next few weeks, but I know the Green Knights can't wait to make a splash in both the MWC's and the NCAA's! :)
Found a quote that I really, really like that I think perfectly serves all of us Green Knights:
I'll be back again soon, probably after Conference, to update you all on how well we ran!
Till then... enjoy Spring!
~Jenny
**This week's running site to visit: http:/www.runnerspace.com There's lots of up to date info on prep, college, and professional running along with blogs from all sorts of runners, so check it out! :)
Oh, and one more thought: just wanted to say THANKS to my superfans - that would be my parents! They travelled all the way to Hillsdale, over a 5 hour trip, to watch me on Friday night! :) Thanks, you guys are the greatest!!! I wish I could've had more time to chat with you - too bad we didn't get out of there till almost midnight!
What a weekend we had at the Gina Relays at Hillsdale College, MI! 5 provisional marks in 2 days! Not bad :)
We unfortunately started off the trip with one of our guys having to race the 10K at 2 pm on Friday in 85+ degree heat. My Coach thought it may have even been 90 down on the track. Absolutely brutal conditions, especially for such a long distance race. Props to him for getting through that race. I was lucky enough to get to race the 10K at around 10 pm that night, once the sun had gone down, and the winds died down as well. It was around 70 at race time, which is still a little warm for my liking, but it was cool compared to earlier that day, that's for sure! I discovered a little more than half way through the race that I had not eaten enough that day to sufficiently provide me energy for a 10K. I'm not sure why I didn't eat more - I guess maybe I wasn't used to racing so late? I ended up able to hang on and finish 4th with a 36:11, so I improved my time from Slippery Rock. It still wasn't the time I was shooting for, but after feeling pretty dizzy during the race I was happy to have finished and hopefully that time will hold up to send me to Nationals.
The real story of that Friday night was Ms. Ashley Graybill. She continued her insane track domination by running a 4:34 1500, over an 11 second PR from the first time she ever ran the event 2 weeks prior. She now has 3 nearly automatic NCAA qualification marks in the 400, 800, and 1500. I'm really not sure how she does it. She just amazes me, week in and week out!
Saturday was another great day for SNC track! Dann Schneider nearly auto'd in the 400 meter dash with an insanely fast time of 47.71 seconds. He is now ranked 2nd in the country in this event!!!! He followed up his 400 with another blazing effort of 21.74 seconds in the 200 meter dash, again provisionally qualifying him for Nationals. Ashley improved her time to 2:11.33 in the 800 meter dash, bringing us to our total of 5 provisional marks in Hillsdale!!!
Also definitely noteworthy are the efforts of John Barrett and Emily Schudrowitz. John busted out a 7 second PR in the 1500 with time of 4:04, and Emily ran a 2:17 800, also a PR! Provisional marks, PR's, and cookies seemed to be the story of our weekend. Yes, cookies. It's always an adventure with guys who have metabolisms even faster than their times. Between Alex, Dann, and John, I believe somewhere around 20 (maybe even more?) chocolate chip cookies from our hotel were consumed. Looks like we're going to need to find more hotels that serve cookies in the future - seemed to be their ticket to fast times! ;)
For their performances over the weekend, Dann and Ashley were both named Midwest Conference Performers of the Week. Congrats to both of them - only slightly deserved honors! :)
All in all, it was a very successful weekend and we'll definitely look to duplicate those performances in a little over a week at the MidwestConference meet at Carroll University! The men and women will both look to improve upon our perfomance at last year's meet where we both finished 3rd. With injuries, it's not going to be easy, but one thing is for sure: we'll be ready to perform at our best.
This weekend, we'll be at the University of Wisconsin Open. It'll be a tune-up for most of us to gear up for next week's big races. Some people will need to get their times down for seeding purposes for Conference, so we'll hope for good weather to help achieve those needed times.
One quick photo story: below you'll see a picture of us all next to a sign for O'Brien's. Coach turned around special after he saw this sign just so we could stop and get a photo next to it. Why you may ask? We have an incredible teammate, Jon O'Brien (probably one of the nicest, & most unique guys you'll ever meet) and to honor him and give him a laugh we snapped a picture with a sign for his very own restaurant. Upon seeing the photo, JOB commented that "I'm everywhere!" Yes, Jon O, you sure are. :)
It's nice to FINALLY be running without gloves, hats, and tons of layers on. Hopefully these next few weeks we can continue to have warm weather, little rain, and calm winds! (hey, I can dream, right?) Between Conference, finals, and Nationals, it's going to be a crazy next few weeks, but I know the Green Knights can't wait to make a splash in both the MWC's and the NCAA's! :)
Found a quote that I really, really like that I think perfectly serves all of us Green Knights:
"Life's battles don't always go to the strongest or fastest man, but sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can..."
If you believe it, you can achieve it!!I'll be back again soon, probably after Conference, to update you all on how well we ran!
Till then... enjoy Spring!
~Jenny
**This week's running site to visit: http:/www.runnerspace.com There's lots of up to date info on prep, college, and professional running along with blogs from all sorts of runners, so check it out! :)
Oh, and one more thought: just wanted to say THANKS to my superfans - that would be my parents! They travelled all the way to Hillsdale, over a 5 hour trip, to watch me on Friday night! :) Thanks, you guys are the greatest!!! I wish I could've had more time to chat with you - too bad we didn't get out of there till almost midnight!
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