Regional Champs!

This past Saturday was the regional championships for cross country. The big fight was between Pioneer, Pinckney, and us (dexter). I got up in the morning ready to race... it was my last chance to really do something before states, portage had not gone as planned so to say. I got up early and iced/heated my ankles and knees (precautions). Breakfast consisted of about 3-4 scrambled eggs, a bowl of oatmeal with apples and nuts and honey inside and a yogurt to top it all off. I got in the car with my mom,and Rem and we headed off to the high school to carpool to the race. The race was held at Willow Metropark (willow tt for all my cycling friends)near the back of the park. When we got there it was a bit chilly and extremely wet and muddy. Some of the parents set the tent up (thank you!) so when we got there we could put our stuff down and relax. Around 11 we started our warm up... We ran some of the course including the big hill and then some of the spots that we thought were going to be muddy... they were. As we ran most of the course we learned that you had the best line going left through all of the mud pits. The course was a loop that we did twice, major features included a big hill on the back side and the 2 road crossings we had to make before the long finish straight! We finished warming up and stretched out and then went back to the tent to get our spikes on before the race. We headed to the line about 15 minutes before the start to do some drills and get ready... we had box 8 which was right about in the middle... a little to the left. There was a big dip about 100 feet out from the line that was filled with water, so our plan was that right off the line we move left. So we are moments from the race, Ive got the bugs in my stomach, I was really nervous. There is that silence before the gun is shot off and everyone starts running with their bladed feet. In that moment I just thought about what I had done to get myself to where I am from where I was at portage, I told myself I was going to run well, I had no other option. Boom! There goes the gun and we are off, it happened just as we all saw it, our team immediately moved left and took control of the field with Joe Wendorf taking it out hard. I felt so much better then I did at portage just off the sprint from the line! I was pumped! I moved up into about 4th or 5th position. We hit the mile at about 5:05... there were a ton more people there then I thought there would be! People were screaming and yelling! It was great! After going through the mile Matt and I were running together in about 4th and 5th and Joe had fallen back a bit. We started our second lap and hit the two mile a bit later (not sure of our split) Matt opened up a little gap before the hill that I closed on the way up. After the hill Matt started to pull away this was a little more then half a mile away from the finish, I really started to feel my limited training here. I pushed it in with Taylor flying by me with 300 meters to go, I jumped behind him and hung on for dear life! I finished in a time of 16:35, not great but the course was slow. (I ran 16:14 last year at the same course for regionals) When we finished, we started running over individual placings, a Plymouth runner had won, Pioneer had taken 2nd and 3rd. Matt took 6th, Taylor 8th, Me 9th, Joe 14th and Tim 16th I believe. We went back to our tent which I then realized was practically on an island, there was water surrounding the entire thing! We were starting out on our cool down when Coach told us we had won! Taylor and Tim just started jumping in the puddles, we all had celebratory hugs before actually starting our cool down. It was only later that we figured out how close it had been! We had only won by 2 points over Pioneer who had taken 2nd by 2 points over Pinckney! What a great race! We had 4 runners who went all region (top 15) (Matt, Taylor, Me and Joe) and we had 6 runners in the top 20! Next came the JV race! Many of them PR'd! On a slow course! We are going to kill next season! While the JV race was going on I hung out with Leda :) and cheered on our Dexter boys! Rem ran an 18:35! PR for him! Many others ran really well as well! Soon after the JV race came the awards, the 4 of us who were in the top 15 went up for our individual placing then came what I feel like was the best part, getting the trophy with the entire varsity team! We had done it! Now one more trophy to get this coming Saturday! States! Come watch us race! Its at MIS (Michigan International Speedway! Hope everyone is doing well!