North Harrison

OMG! It's past 11:30 on a school night, and I'm only beginning to post on this evening's race. There's no way I can go into full detail, but if I can hit 3 or 4 points, that will be Good enough!

I've punched it all into Excel, let the spreadsheet work its magic, and the race becomes clearer to me. First thing that's obvious - it wasn't a fast night. Temps were in the mid-90's during your races, so no, it wasn't just you. I turned to Lane at the start of the Varsity race and told him it was going to be a tough one for us. 

So, let's try to break this down quickly...

Danielle - 7:08, 7:11, 7:09, 5:40 kick - a nearly perfect race. That's how splits should look!

Shelby - 7:08, 7:11, 7:15, 6:00 kick - these were very good splits too. You lost no more than 5 seconds a mile. Great work!

Carrie - 7:05, 7:19, 7:30, 5:20 kick - a little slower on the first mile, and you would hold it. 10 seconds would do it. Time would have been exactly the same, but it would have seemed like an easy race. I like your heart though... I'm not sure if I want to make a correction or let you get tougher. Hard choice.

Alli - 7:24, 7:48, 7:42, 6:10 kick - you may not believe it, but this was a lot better race than last week in more ways than one. You had a nice negative split at the end. True, it's not as fast as you'd like, but you did go faster tonight when most went slower. You have to feel good about that. 

Morgan - 7:30, 8:24, 8:47, 6:20 kick - gutsy performance. I know that leg hurt bad. It was a pretty good kick, all things considered.

Bret - 8:00, 8:15, 8:33, 7:10 kick - the slide is slightly more than we'd like, but it's a reasonable gap. Still, we have work to do on your form. You have to push yourself to stretch out your stride. I'm going to sic the team on you if you don't! ;)

Diana - 8:37, 10:44, 9:19, 8:40 kick - you are not a heat runner. It's that simple. 

Keeley - 7:12, 8:45, 9:18, 6:40 kick - you hit a good time in spite of yourself. That first mile was not the plan at all. I know you wanted to explain why you weren't going to do it my way, but do it my way. Or I will sic the team on you. ;) Seriously, you lost 1:33 from mile one to two, then another 00:33 the next mile. Slow down the first mile and see what can happen. Start at 8 and stay there. 

Chloe - 8:17, 9:00, 9:10, 7:20 kick - you took your shot, it just wasn't there. I'm not sorry; we'll try again. Your kick shows you have something there yet. 

Lauren - 8:21, 8:56, 9:14, 8:20 kick - this is an issue of time on your feet, and you simply haven't built enough strength yet. We knew this would be tough. The plan is to be ready by Sectional. We can still do that. 

Locki - 8:23, 9:21, 9:29, 6:40 kick - the kick betrays you. We had a cautious plan for your first meet, but now I know you can do more. Can't hide now! You have speed; if we can get you a bit stronger, you will be able to use it. 

Summer - 8:22, 9:23, 9:54, 8:00 kick - confidence is the issue here. You are a faster runner, and you were all summer. You have to push through the pain a bit more, and resume the stride you once had. You can run faster even now, you just have to believe it. 

You won't PR every race, it just doesn't happen. We're still probing here, we'll find the mark for all of you. We also need to continue to work hard in practice, to hit minimum mileage goals (at least), and take every chance to be better. 

I'm proud of all of you. I know we're headed the right direction!

*So, did you solve the riddle?