The joys of coaching

Yesterday, my girls team had their first home meet of the season. It was a dual meet against a strong team with one really fast girl. Last year we lost by just a few points because our #2 girl had sprained her ankle. This year, I went back and forth between thinking we could pull off a win, and that we would get crushed. The biggest factor is that my top runner is battling shin splits (we can have a whole other post about that later if need be...) and the question was: is it worth it for her to race this weekend? She and I ended up deciding that it would be better to be healthy the rest of the season than to race today but risk being out for months, in a walking boot. And honestly? We ended up losing by 2 points, so if she had run, we would have won. But we still had a great day.

The course at my school is one of the hardest in New England. It's certainly harder than any college cross country course I encountered in 4 years. I ran this course in high school, and when I arrived on campus as a coach last August, my legs remembered the 1/2 mile uphill. It's grassy, it's hilly and it can be lonely. We ran the course during the week as a tempo run and I finished the 5k in a less than impressive time of 24:20. My first mile was 7:07, but the hills killed me. And the same happened with my girls today. Luckily they showed so much grit and determination. In true xc fashion, one girl lost her shoe on the course. Two girls wore spikes for the first time today--I think they're converts now. On a course as hard as ours, it was remarkable that many of my girls came close to their PRs or season bests. Over the course of the season, our team has been missing one girl or another and we haven't been at full strength. While we weren't today either, if we factored in our top girl, we saw how great we could be if we were completely healthy.

My girls had fire in their bellies today. That's not something that I can help them with; they have to find it themselves. One way or another, they found it and it burned bright today. As their coach, I train them physically and encourage them mentally and emotionally, but there are some aspects that they have to figure out for themselves. As devastating as a 2 point loss is, the way the girls rallied and fought, I know that they are ready to bring it and make up for that at our next race. I hope we win!

Meditating before the race.