End of Season Wrap Up

It has been 167 blog postings since we started this whole track season thing way back at the beginning of October. I think we had a very successful season, but man, what a long strange trip it's been.  From shoveling the track to flying to Florida, from getting hailed out at League Champs to running up Green Mtn., from indoor meets in Boulder to twilight meets in Pueblo, from pre-dawn 500m repeats to "suns out, guns out" 60F+ days; this season has been a wonderful journey for me. The effort matters more than any of the results, and I can say without hesitation that the work put in by everybody involved with this program was second-to-none.  For that, I can look back on this year and be proud. Be proud of all the work the athletes and coaches put in, and be proud that we did everything we could to make ourselves the best runners we could be. Unless you take risks in life, you are never truly alive. I feel that this program did everything possible to become better racers, and I have no regrets at all looking back.

I meet a lot of coaches over the season, some good ones, some not so good ones. I sometimes wonder how these other coaches would fit in on our staff. It is not with false modesty that I say I would rather have our coaches over anyone else in the state. I think we have the best coaching staff in Colorado, I think that this coaching staff gets the best out of every single athlete, and I am eternally grateful to all of them for all the hard work and time they put into this program. Without Lib, Tessa, Abes, Hawk, Harris, Bowman and Jimmy, CHS T&F would be a dumpster fire, so huge thanks and gratitude go out to them.

I wish a fond farewell to all of the seniors who have been the backbone of the program for the last four years. This was an excellent group of kids to work with, and I know they will be doing some pretty impressive things, both on and off the track, in the coming years. I sincerely hope they keep in touch, if nothing more than for them to whip me in some mountain trail races.   Remember, a boomerang that doesn't come back is just a stick, as they say. I am also very excited for our underclassmen in the coming years. We have some great young talent on this team, and even though we are losing a lot to graduation, I think we will still be very strong next year. Maybe even stronger than this year.

Wow that three day State Meet is a grind, isn't it? It started for Coach Bowman & I on Wednesday night, and we loaded up the truck to fight traffic home Saturday around 6:00. In-between was a up and down meet, but overall I was very pleased with the effort and results.  I think there are some things we can do better next year to perform at this meet, and I think we did some things very well. No regrets, no complaints from me, and Jimmy likes to say, it is a process. I think our growth as a team and the path we are continuing down is a very positive one.

It is a tough job keeping up with all of the results from four events all year, but I don't think anything slipped through the cracks. As much as I try to stress that your effort matters more than your results, track is a numbers based sport. That is how we determine who is better than someone else. I believe if you posted our season bests against any other teams seasons bests, there is a pretty good chance we would come out on top. The men and the women both had great results from top to bottom this year, and that is due 100% to all the hard work these athletes put in over the course of seven months. Everyone on these lists should be very proud of themselves. I have also updated the Top 9 list. We have a lot of "2013" that crept onto that list this year, which is really fantastic.

Now summer training begins. I strongly suggest to everyone reading this blog to run cross country at the high school level. Running XC gives all track athletes a great base on which to build winter intervals on. Even if you don't see yourself as a 5km runner, "suffering" through XC can make you a much stronger track star, especially in the month of May. A couple years ago, I put together a restaurant style menu of workouts for your summer training. It is a choice based program, one that you must be very self motivated to stick with. This program is designed to get you stronger and ready to race in the fall, not for winning the Georgetown Half Marathon in August. Check it out, use what you want from it, but most of all, stick with it. Results will not appear overnight, it will only be when school starts up again that you notice how much faster and stronger you are.

This week, Coach Bowman and I will start the mundane end-of-year tasks of cleaning out the cube and the cage. If you still have your uniform or your windsuit, please do to the schoolhouse and return those to Bowman as soon as possible. As in, on Monday. Put your clean uniform and windsuit in a plastic shopping bag, make sure your name and grade are clearly written on the bag, and personally deliver it to Coach Bowman. Those $90 uniforms and $140 windsuits are needed for next year, so please return them back to the program. Rocking your high school track uniform on your new college campus makes you a real loser, as we all know. We will also need some help this week, putting away the pole vault pits, storing the high jump pits, organizing the hurdles, and generally cleaning out the cube. We will let the underclassmen know when we are doing this, and the coaches could really use some help that day. Thanks in advance for that one.

My plans for the summer? Unplug from the track scene and decompress for a couple weeks. I suggest all the athletes do that as well. The Seppala family will be taking some trips this summer. back east for a couple weeks, up to the mountains as much as possible. I want to get in a good summer of running with Chloe and Reid as well, and I still gotta get those sprinklers going. Even though I will be traveling a lot, keep in touch. I would love to go on some trail runs with anyone, and maybe we can sneak in a Red Rocks stairs session. Just let me know, and we can try to connect.

Finally, a sincere thanks to everyone that helped make this program as successful as it has become. We are a presence now in the track community, other teams know that when Chaparral shows up, they are in for a fight. Everyone from administration to the trainers, from all of the awesome supportive parents to all of the generous people in the business community, all of the athletes and all of the coaches; everyone contributes mightily to the success of this team. I sincerely thank everyone who is on our side, we couldn't do it without you. Thanks.

SEP