Well, there is no other way to say it other than we had an extremely successful day this afternoon. We had PR's falling all over the place, on a very hilly course. Now that we are finally unwinding by chilling at the pool, (Thank you 75 degree Phonenix!), let me try and re-cap the day.
The boys raced first, against a very large strong field. I wanted them to go out conservatively, as there were three huge hills in the last mile of the course I wanted them to have strength for. The start was pretty tight, so they had to get out fast, and all of them went through the first mile pretty quick. Between 15 and 40 seconds too fast, but by then it was too late to slow them down, they could only hold it the rest of the race.
After the first mile mark, they had a long run through "No-Man's Land" and then the first time up All-America Hill. This is a very steep, 40-50 m long grass hill. After descending as fast at they could, they cruised around the lake, then into some rolling terrain that ended with a long steep 80 m hill. Right after descending that hill, they went up All-America hill again, then it was 1200 m to the finish. I saw none of the finish, but I am very proud to report that Keagen came in 8th at 16:29, Derek was 15th at 16:41 and Tyler finished 137th with a 20:05. All HUGE personal bests, even when you account for the altitude. The course was hilly, with all of the hills coming at the end like a Tour de France stage, and to have the boys run that fast is incredible!
The girls race went off right afterwards, but not before I had a mile sprint to the start line to make sure the girls were all set, and then a mile sprint back to the first mile mark after the gun went off to get some times. The girls all went through that first mile fast, about 30 seconds fast for all of them, but since the boys went through fast and were OK, I wasn't worried. I watched all of them head off to No Man's Land, then got to the top of All-America Hill to cheer them on. They cleared that hill like they had been running it all their lives. It was great. At DeKoevend Park, we struggled at those hills, now we were passing people on them! I couldn't believe it, we were all running so well!
Beth and I then headed over to the long steep hill to watch the girls tackle that. And they didn't just tackle it, they destroyed it!! I was so psyched. The results bore out the great racing, with Kateyln in 8th in 20:12, Kelli in 15th in 20:27, and Melanie in 33rd at 21:27. (That's pretty amazing considering she was battling a stomach cramp the whole last mile. She went through the first two miles in 12:57!!!!)
I was just amazed and so happy for all of the runners. These kids dedicated 4 months of their time to work towards this race, and they all have great times to show for it! That is just awesome, just awesome! Katelyn and Keagen got medals for finishing top ten, which is great, but all of the kids just ran spectacularly. We got some of the fastest times in Chaparral history today on a very hilly course with some pretty high temperatures out there. These athletes are primed to keep running fast all through winter track and spring track and that was the goal of this whole endeavor.
So, on to Delux Burger for a well deserved celebratory dinner. We certainly deserve it!
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P.S. My ace photographer wife Beth got some AWESOME shots today. I am going to try and get those posted up as soon as I can.
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