First Meet!

Ladies,

There you go - that's as tough as it gets to run. Hot, muggy, no air moving, nothing but an unrelenting blanket of stink and sauna. You all passed the test! It might rain, it might get cold, it might do a lot of things to make you uncomfortable, but nothing breaks you down faster or more completely than heat.

This is also the first team - EVER - to follow instructions on the first day. Every one of you ran a smart race. Maybe a minor mistake was made here or there on the timing of a move. So what? Four of the six girls racing tonight were doing their first ever high school 5k! Of course there would be minor errors. It still remains that as much as any group of athletes could possibly stick to any game plan, you girls did. Bravo!

Here are the splits gathered tonight. I've broken them down a couple of ways, so bear with me.

Runner		Mile 1	Mile 2	Pace	Mile 3	Pace	5k	5k Pace
Joslyn Weaver		7:09:00	14:48:00	7:39:00	22:27:00	7:39:00	23:05:00	7:26:46
Carrie Flinn		7:09:00	14:52:00	7:43:00	22:45:00	7:53:00	23:28:00	7:34:12
Diana Kattau		7:42:00	16:00:00	8:18:00	24:45:00	8:45:00	25:37:00	8:15:48
Zoe Zollman		7:27:00	15:57:00	8:30:00	24:58:00	9:01:00	25:49:00	8:19:41
Chelsey Schofield		7:36:00	16:14:00	8:38:00	25:10:00	8:56:00	25:52:00	8:20:39
Kate Albertson		7:38:00	16:20:00	8:42:00	25:40:00	9:20:00	26:25:00	8:31:17

First would be the mile splits and their paces. While it's true the usual plan would be to hold roughly even splits, even under the best of conditions that's tough on our course because of the difference in difficulty between miles one and two. Tonight it was even worse. With that in mind, I'm not surprised to see a big drop off in splits. Just know if you'd pushed harder earlier the drop off would have been worse, and in some cases, catastrophic. 

As for the overall time, it's irrelevant. This was not an all-out effort. 85% was the plan, and I felt that's what you did. Frankly I'm surprised the times are as fast as they are. This race was about placement, and you ladies were solidly in 2nd tonight. You were never in danger of losing that spot, think on that, and you didn't give it your all. Also, you left two of your runners home. That's pretty solid stuff right there.

Next let's throw in the first 800. Remember, you were all told to be slower than 3:30. Check this out.

Runner		800	Pace
Joslyn Weaver		3:37:00	7:14:00
Carrie Flinn		3:37:00	7:14:00
Diana Kattau		3:45:00	7:30:00
Zoe Zollman		3:37:00	7:14:00
Chelsey Schofield		3:40:00	7:20:00
Kate Albertson		3:43:00	7:26:00

Anyone notice anything about the 800/Mile 1 comparison for Joslyn and Carrie? That's right, the second half of the first mile was faster than the first, significantly so. That's the reverse of what we normally see. That's control. Both dropped 30 seconds the next mile, and Carrie a bit more the third (Joslyn even-split the last two miles). Interesting!

Finally, let's look at the kick.

Runner		Final 1/10	Kick Spd
Joslyn Weaver		0:38:00	6:20:00
Carrie Flinn		0:43:00	7:10:00
Diana Kattau		0:52:00	8:40:00
Zoe Zollman		0:51:00	8:30:00
Chelsey Schofield		0:42:00	7:00:00
Kate Albertson		0:45:00	7:30:00

This was a bit unexpected, though I attribute this to my instructions. I said 85%, and that's what I got, mostly. Joslyn had a girl right on her at the finish, and she fought for the spot (and I'm glad she did!). She wound up running a hard sprint uphill to the finish, giving her a final 10th pace of 6:20. Carrie brought it in at a steady 7:10, but whoa! Chelsey?! Seven flat?! I didn't see that coming, though I should have. 

I cannot say enough for Joslyn and Carrie to take the front and take on as many Seymour girls as they could. That was mature racing by both of you, and it's good to see athletes with competitive spirits such as yours. You were tough, and you sent a message tonight.

Still, I have to reserve special praise for Diana. Diana has fought for three years now to conquer the heat, her arch-nemesis. There are no words to express how remarkable it is to see her not only run 3rd for the team, but also have one of the best season-opening times of her career. On this day. In this heat! Last year she started the season with a 25:50 on a much cooler day (and was 9th on the team!). 

It's late and I am too tired to do it, but if I were to look up Megan Winter's time from last year (Seymour, 11th grade), I would find she was 2 minutes faster (likely as not). No one broke 22 today. Usually a team at the quality level of Seymour would have someone near 20 flat. Let me be clear; the day was worth up to 2 minutes on everyone. That means you could pull up to 2 minutes off your time and you have an idea what was possible today if the weather had been better.

<EDIT>Okay, I grabbed an old newspaper. Last year Seymour's Zoey Johnson won in 19:53. 'Nuff said. 

In the final analysis, there is still much unknown. Though some great things came out of tonight, the waters are still muddy. I'm hoping to get a clearer picture on Saturday. Flatter course and cooler weather should make running a bit easier. We'll also have some good competition from Salem. It'll be very interesting. 

Meet time is 9:30 AM, so we will leave BNL at 7:30. That should give us plenty of time to get down there and set up. 

Run at Milwaukee tomorrow, 4 P.M. Easy run!