Blog #2 - Meeting Alexa !

Today I finally got to race! It felt so great to be running a 5K again, and just to be racing in general. But before I tell you about the race, let me take you through my week leading up to the Astronaut Invitational.

This week was a normal week like usual with workouts on Tuesday and Thursday & easy runs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but my workouts were some of the best I’ve had in my whole career. Comparing the splits I hit in my 800’s and 200’s to what I was hitting last year really shows me how far I’ve come. Basically this entire week I had been anticipating Saturday, and that feeling of spikes on your feet, and the sound of the starting gun, etc. I just really love cross country… and personally, I think it’s way better than track. Nothing against track or anything, but I just prefer longer distances. I would run the 10K if I was allowed to.

 Anyway, so finally today came around and it was race day. I’m happy we did the Astronaut Invitational not only because it’s a lot of fun with all of the local competitors getting together, but it’s also a pretty low-key meet so it’s good to get the first race jitters out of everyone’s systems. Going into this race, my main goal was just to take first place. I wasn’t shooting for any specific time and I didn’t want to push it when it isn’t necessary because cross country has a pretty long season, and I will most likely need that energy at a later race. I planned the race with my dad yesterday because he ran in high-school and knows a lot about strategy, and we decided I needed to go 5:30-ish for the first mile just to see how it felt and prepare for the hard race next week (Katie Caples) and then I could ease off the pace if I had a good lead.

 Today in the race I hit 5:31 for my first mile, which was exactly what I wanted. I felt pretty strong at this point and everyone was yelling at me that I already had a significant lead on the rest of the runners, so I decided to ease off the pace and just cruise in the last 2.1 miles. Up until the 1.5 mark I thought the course was relatively dry, and then the grass started to get sloshy and then came the quick sand of mud. I was pretty disappointed that the course ended up being wet and slow, but I didn’t let that affect my mentality. I sort of expected it anyway due to the crazy storms going on yesterday. I finished with a time of 18:11, which beat second place by 1:02 and beat third place by 1:22. Overall I was very pleased with my first race of the season, and I can’t wait for Katie Caples next week!

  After my race this guy walked up to me, and told me he had a little 8 year old daughter who just loved me and really wanted to meet me, so I told him he should bring her over. She came sprinting over and she was so adorable! Her name was Alexa, and she was tiny with tons of long hair like mine, put up in a ponytail with a ribbon.

 In fact before I had even met her, tons of people were saying she looked like a mini-me! She told me she and her dad always watch my videos online, and that she loves how I do my hair and wants to be fast when she grows up. She’s only 8 years old and can already run 6:30 for a mile and even though she is starting super early, I know she’s going to be an awesome runner so everybody watch out!

Shelby

***************************************************************************

ABOUT Shelby Davidson

Not everyone may know this, but I haven’t always been a runner. I’m not one of those kids who have been running their entire life, but it is definitely in my blood to be a runner. My grandpa and dad ran in high school, and so did my brother Tyler (who now runs for the University of Florida) so it was just a matter of time before I picked the sport up myself. I was born in the tiny, boring state of Delaware and moved a lot when I was younger. My entire childhood I was basically a tom-boy because I tried every sport possible- except for karate and lacrosse, and running of course. My main sport was always softball. I played for 10 years until I became a runner.

We were always a baseball/softball type family actually, because my brother played for 10 years as well. We both wanted to play in high school and college, so we grew up playing little league, travel ball, and then varsity in high school. I made the varsity team in 7th grade, which was a pretty big deal but going into my 10th grade year I was so sick of doing it. I had played for so long and I was just ready for something new. My brother is two years older than me, so I got to experience when he transitioned from baseball to running in 10th grade when I was only in 8th grade. He got so fast so quickly, and I wanted to try it out myself. It looked like fun, because long distance was way better than the short distance running around the bases- which I hated by the way. So the summer going into 10th grade, I decided in July that I wanted to run. This was kind of late and I didn’t get much training in, I only ran every other day, but by the end of the season I ran a 19:35. I fell in love with running my first at summer practice that year.

And so it began, my obsession with running. After my sophomore year, it was summer again and I had the desire and the motivation to be fast. So I trained extremely hard before junior year, and I got the results I wanted. This past summer going into my senior year I trained even harder, and I am hoping to achieve my goals and be an inspiration to all of those runner girls out there now who really want to be successful. I plan on running in college after this year, and hopefully winning an NCAA title and then going to the Olympics one day. These are pretty big dreams, but my heart is in the right place and I am determined and focused to give 110% all the time. As long as you have faith in yourself, you’re already one step closer.

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.” -Pre

Editor's Note- Shelby will be keeping a blog for us this year as she is set to improve on a stellar junior year. Last year Davidson was a Footlocker Finalist and has had one of her best summers of her high school career. Click here to follow all of her blog posts.

More on Shelby

Post-Race Interview at the 37th

Astronaut-Rotary Invitational

Join the DistancePreps Mailing List!!!