Blog #2 - The First Invitational of the Season

By Brenna Cohoon

Saturday morning began in the way that most weekend meet days do: I woke up early, ate my typical pre-race breakfast of a bagel with peanut butter, and put on my uniform.  Even at this point in the day, my pre-race nerves began filling the pit of my stomach. In my third year of high school running, instead of being completely nervous, I use that energy to get excited!  The short car ride to school was spent feeding myself with positive thoughts. I worked to convince myself that I felt fine, despite the fact I woke up with a sore throat for the second day in a row. It was just a minor inconvenience, but could still be a factor in the race.

My teammates and I got pumped up on the bus ride to Fenton by listening to some of our favorite meet-day songs.  It’s become a tradition to play the same 10 or 15 songs before each race - it allows us to relax and enjoy each other’s company.

Once we arrived at Fenton, we set up our camp and went on a brief course walkthrough.  Shortly after we had returned to our tent, a huge rain cloud came through, bringing along some thunder and lightning.  Personally, this weather excited me, because I felt ready to deal with some extra adversity. However, everyone was rushed into Fenton’s field house during the rain delay that would push back the start of the girls varsity race from 9:00 to 9:30.  The coaches and officials had also decided to expand the varsity race from each team’s top seven runners to their top fourteen, and combine the rest of the girls into a second race. The small time difference didn’t bother me much, but the thought of running this race with double the amount of expected runners was a little nerve-wracking.  I would have to get out faster than I had originally intended to get ahead of the crowd.

With some extra time on our hands, our team sat in the bleachers of the gym and played some more of our meet-day tunes.  Other teams joined in on the fun, and soon the entire field house was filled with shared singing, dancing, and laughter. When the weather had cleared up and it was safe to return outside, we began our usual warmup.  As soon as we finished, though, more lightning was sighted, again pushing back the start time of the race at least another half hour.

The coaches attended a couple more meetings and agreed on an 11:30 start to the races, giving the storms enough time to clear the area.  To ensure that everyone was able to compete, though, it was decided to group all of the girls into one race, and the boys into another. Though it wasn’t what anyone had anticipated, it was better than having the meet cancelled entirely.  We were excited to compete again and didn’t want to lose an opportunity to race.

Once everything was confirmed, my team retreated into the cafeteria to focus and relax.  I worked to stay positive through this challenging time by surrounding myself with my incredible, supportive teammates.  We reminded each other that everyone had to deal with the same conditions and that an experience like this will only make us stronger.

Eventually, the weather cleared enough that the girls race was moved up to 11:00, so we went on another warmup, laced up our spikes, and headed to the starting line.  Having almost 60 of my teammates on the line around me was wild, to say the least, yet comforting. It gave me some extra motivation to try my best and reminded me that we can rely on each other when things really get tough.

The gun went off, and 431 girls rushed through the opening in the fence toward the first flag.  I secured a position in the front pack and settled into my pace. At this point, the course was wet, but not too muddy.  I felt calm and went through the mile with the pack that I had started with, but things started to string out shortly afterwards.  Freshman Aly Negovetich from Grant made her move during the second mile. I held back and didn’t respond quickly enough. I doubted myself in that moment and let a great opportunity to further challenge myself go by.  The gap between her and me slowly grew, but I was determined to close it during my last mile. My main focus of the race had been to finish with a strong final mile, so I reframed my mindset and began kicking into another gear, finishing second behind Aly.  Although I wasn’t able to win the race, I was proud of the outcome given the challenging circumstances. Like my first race of the season, I was not completely satisfied with my performance, but know that I can use this as yet another learning experience. Yes, I wanted to win this race and defend my title from last year, but perhaps this was just the motivation I needed to try even harder in the future.  

When the race was over, I took an immense amount of pride in my team and the fact that our top seven runners finished in the top eleven places of this race, with two other girls finishing in sixteenth and seventeenth.  We won the meet scoring only 26 points.

While we were pleased with the meet’s outcome, my teammates and I are now focusing more intently on what lies ahead and all that is at stake.  I used my easy, seven-mile run on Sunday as an opportunity to reflect upon my race and remind myself of the goals that I have set for this season.  On Labor Day, our team held an 8:00 am practice and completed a tempo run. We went by feel rather than time in terms of pacing, and ended up running close to six miles at that pace.  It was a workout that definitely boosted my confidence after Saturday’s race at Fenton and will make my body grow stronger in these coming weeks. I simply need to remember all that I have done thus far and continue to trust in my training.  Keeping my focus on the months ahead while giving my best effort each and every day is the best way to stay positive and not get too caught up in the results of these meets early in the season.

This Saturday, we will be competing in Peoria for the First to the Finish Invitational.  This is such a fantastic opportunity to compete against the best in the state and take advantage of the fast Detweiller course!  I am excited to use the lessons that I have learned from these first two races and apply them this weekend. I am ready to get out of my comfort zone and give that last mile everything I’ve got.

Editor’s Note – Brenna Cohoon will be sharing her experiences of the 2018 season every Wednesday morning this fall. She also has a blog page where you can read some more of her work - https://sites.google.com/view/love2run02/home

Photo Credit - Laura Duffy ©2018