2024 JO XC Nationals
I know it sounds corny but there was so much love this weekend. We weren’t in Shelbyville an hour when Gary Nolley, Blue River CC director, paid a call on us at Applebees. And he set a hook! The girls were there in their 5 Belows (+S&H) enjoying themselves even if Casey had to endure Applebee’s love of bacon. Meanwhile, the boys were setting up their brand with a later (as planned) arrival. And what’s not to love when your hotel is walking distance from Denny’s, Applebee’s, Starbucks, and a bespoke XC course? Then we improved on it with planned and unplanned reunions with former teammates and adult running club friends. This opportunity is all built on the coaches who supported us in the PIT, the Azalea Ledge Loop, and woods, and of course JT’s lights of a thousand kinds. Thank you for the thank you’s on Friday night. The thoughtfulness and resourcefulness of the gifts was another demonstration of what keeps us going. 5 days later and I’m still telling the story of the hat.
Lastly, thank you parents for letting the athletes be themselves and being there to catch them at the end. XC races are exercises in autonomy and letting them experience this in that environment is great. We know there is a gap between “Leave me alone, I got this” and the athlete really having it but experience is the path.
The rest of this probably is an ode to the value of your pack.
Notables
Noah Geiger turned to find and hug Michael Studer, Greater Lowell, at the finish. These 2 have been chasing each other for 4 years. Honoring your competitor is part of being a good member of the racing community. "Compete" comes from the Latin word competere, which means "to strive together". You need another for there to be a ‘together’ Finding and running with Michael from 2K to 600 to go put both of them in position.
WTC Athletes finishing 5m+ passed the finish line. Emerson might still be running. If you watch the finish of the 13-14 girls race, first place came down to the best finisher. The 13-14 boys winner almost gave it back with an early coast and celebration. I’m scoring us 17 for 17 on this front.
Both teams enjoyed 5 point race margins. The boys were within 9 points of finishing 8th and 5 points from finishing 11th. Every competitive point matters.
In the girls race, our 6th (Molly) and 7th (Althea) finishers displaced Fleet Feet’s 5th place runner to help us earn the 13th spot ahead of them. Their higher finish pushed up Fleet Feet’s score. With a 5 point margin, these places matter. To do this, Althea raced to a 68 second PR and Molly to 26 second PR. Althea also enjoyed some team spike swap love. I don’t have the splits, but Althea really moved up over the 2nd half and Molly seemed to be looking ahead for the next pack and Casey throughout.
Competing also is giving what you have that day. There were many examples this season and on Saturday.
Many PRs across the team as they took advantage of a strong field and a fast course. See the quote below but the athletes were closer to the mindset of seeing what is possible than they might have thought.
With 600 to go, Sammy was back 20m from Rylan Andrews from Alabama. Sammy sized it up and decided to engage. With furious finish, he caught him about 80m from the finish and blew through the finish line
Vivi and Felicity committed to an aggressive start and letting the chips fall where they might. Despite not being fully recovered from her ailment, Vivi didn’t make any excuses and didn’t let Felicity go unsupported in the opening K. This pushed them to PRs of 56 seconds for Felicity and 22 seconds for Vivi. Teammates help teammates take chances. They also managed to get a ride in the flatbed of an ATV as part of the “hat conspiracy” (Another “chance taking?”)
Like a few others on the 13-14 team, Luc was lining up as a 7th grader against high school runners. While he might not feel like he did, he mixed it up with them enough to run a PR. His PR pace for 4K was his 3K PR pace from last year but over a distance 33% longer.
Victoria, unfortunately, got disconnected from teammates during warmups. (See notes on connectedness below) While processing this, she managed to stay on task with her warm up until they reconnected. Staying on the necessary prep despite the situation was the first battle she won on the way to her 54 second PR.
Will’s outlook and approach is an asset to the team. He demonstrated that with an aggressive start at Regionals that helped get the team to nationals. His spark all weekend kept those football games moving. His time was a PR and he also moved up 102 spots from last year’s Nationals finish. He put himself out there and held on.
Carter had a patient start and consistently moved up during the race. I saw at least one spot where he was working through some body checking in those inner loops. New Englander’s know hockey moves. That happens in a thick race and it requires skill and focus to keep running strong. In the end, he turned in a 20 second PR. I want to remember he also had the awareness at the Associate meet to “run the right way” There’s a lot to goes into being a good distance competitor
Ishaan wasn’t going to be left out of this Belmont parade. His 22 second PR earned him 89th place in his first race of this size. His second 2K was full of kills. At 600 to go, he was looking for people to pass. He was in thickest part of the race and did a great job of find space to race over that last 100m. 2 seconds either way changes his place by 10
Casey got to play the role of the 5th runner. With 600m to go, she had the gut check moment as she was behind a pack of 12 aka “a huge set of points” Thankfully, she was hungry for the points and went after the pack. In a 5 point battle, every “kill’ she made over the last 600m paid off. Of course, running a 20 second PR put her in position.
At 2.5K, Andrew was in a deep sea of jerseys. Pick any color to go after and I guess he did. It’s great to have a big group to run with but you also have to guard against falling into a rhythm that is slower than you are capable of. With a 35 second PR and finishing ahead of New England competitors he finished behind earlier in the season shows that he took advantage of the “laundry.” In the 5 seconds on either side of Andrew there were 26 finishers. Any let up and we fall back in the standing quickly. Hail to the 5th runner.
Emma raced with confidence and then with 500 to go resilience. At the hairpin turn back to the finish, she slipped. All of the momentum and rhythm is gone, not to mention the instinct to check that everything is still there. She had the instinct to keep moving and competing. The spots matter, let's get going. She left “feeling it” until after the finish line. Perhaps all of those warmup dynamics gave her a bit more balance to keep the slip from being worse.
Eli’s been doing this for the story since August. He brought curiosity to the team from the early going. He was there to ask questions when others might have been too shy and seemed to expect something interesting to happen. This “curiosity” gets you on the plane the morning after your Bar Mitzvah to run Regionals. This curiosity helps you attack a National Championship field to run a 56 second PR.
Guilia’s been bringing love to WTC for many years. This was her 3rd trip to nationals. While her brothers might want some credit, Guilia has been the consistent glue across many WTC teams. The connectedness that you saw last weekend just doesn’t happen without teammates tending to it. Guilia learned from the prior teams and took the effort to apply the fun to future teams. This group first connected as 9-10s during COVID times running with masks at Mine Falls and Leary Field. While Guilia, Casey, and Vivi (Ella,Daria, Maggie,Janie) have been on the team for a while, connecting with members as they came in over the years is a skill they all have and want to retain and grow. The 5+ years of WTC roots and friendship pays you back. Despite a full high school season, Guilia wanted one more ride with the WTC pack and helped make it fun for all 9. Then there is the simple contribution to the team results on the course.. Her commitment to the team was the difference in 2 place in the team standings on Saturday. You are lucky when your team is your “why” and you make your own luck when you tend to your team.
Alumni Appearance
Our trip included a pre-race briefing from WTC Alum, Ella Wozek. In 2016, Ella Wozek battled a chilly day in Hoover Alabama to race and zipline at Nationals. In 2017, she slogged through the mud in Tallahassee. In 2024, she competed for Oberlin 2x on the Blue River course. While she was there to share her sisterly love with Molly, she had some love to share with the WTC sisterhood. It was neat to see multi-faceted long-term development playout. While Ella can clearly speak for herself, Ella’s navigation thru injury setbacks was aided by the running communities she’s been in. (Not to mention Jack and Eileen)
Pre-Race Jitters and the XC Team
“Fear is gradually replaced by excitement and a simple desire to see what you can do on the day.” Lauren Fleshman
Managing pre-race nerves came up a few times this weekend. Here are a few thoughts. First, expect the feeling especially when you are in a novel race situation like a 400 runner National Championship. Next, name the feeling “excitement and readiness” while respecting that you can only hold the “ready to go” feeling for so long or so strongly. Athletes do need to learn to manage this and harness it.
The XC team setting can be one help. The team routines are strong tools to lean on. Use the familiar to crowd out the novel. Warming up as a team is a way to leverage the love. When there is genuine connection, feel-good hormones are released and that dampens down stress hormones (cortisol) . The more ingrained the routine and the stronger the connection the better it holds up under the stress of a championship. On Saturday, We got a taste of the anxiety that bubbles up when the team gets physically disconnected. We really are playing with chemistry.
That football game in the parking lot is helping the boys connect just as the pajamas and eye paint are for the girls team. The course walk for the club serves to reduce the anxiety of the unknown and also a time to connect. The call to put away the phones is another step to improve connection. Building and maintaining team connectedness is not automatic and takes some tending. The in-between times are so valuable and it is ‘give to get’
At 13-14, they are not going to be as good with this as they will be. Gaining experience is one point of doing this race. On an individual level, athletes have to learn how to focus on the controllables. Their race execution is a sum of their actions not their feelings. This is where a tool like visualization comes in. On Saturday, you could visualize the first 7 seconds, then finding teammates, then finding the proper line through the moguls etc. If the pressure feels especially high, It might be better to narrow this further to 1 or 2 things to focus on:. “Get out hard, set up the turn at the moguls..” While it’s legitimate to be concerned when you are on the start line next to an athlete who is 6 inches taller, the game is to direct your energy to your race plan/execution (In the race, directing your energy to the competitive task is a whole topic) This takes practice. Practices like mindfulness meditation can help you learn how to let negative feelings pass by and not latch on. As Lauren Flesman alludes to, there is an element of exposure therapy at play. The more you do this, the more you realize you can do this.
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