Saturday was the NAC conference championships at Wisconsin Lutheran. We went in with some intricate battle plans, a little warpaint, and a lot of guts. The meet itself was an experience; several of the guys were sick, including Ryan and Danny, and the women were underdogs right from the start. I personally took a digger in the first 2 miles, losing my footing and crashing to the ground in the middle of the woods. I'm not sure what happened; I just remember planting my left foot and then finding myself sliding through the dirt while Kelby screamed at me from behind to get back up. The incident left me a bit scraped, bleeding, and dirty, but I managed to catch back up to Fife and Richard to finish the race.
As the overall results came in we were all pretty anxious. Despite some uncertain performances and a protest from one of the opposing coaches we managed to pull off the win-on BOTH SIDES. The guys took it by a mere 3 points, which is extremely satisfying after having lost by 3 last year. Hats off to Braun, who moved up with his best race of the season to fill in for those who were ill. Without him we couldn't have done it. The women ended up winning by about 15 points thanks to solid races from Jamie, Maxine, and Caitlyn. Ultimately it turned out to be the injured, the sick, and the come-from-behind overachievers who won the day. As we all hugged and cheered after the awards I felt something strange start to course through my body. It was at this time that I finally realized I'd run my last race with CUW cross country. Never again would I get to put on that uniform.
Just a few months ago I was hopelessly crippled by mysterious injuries and contemplating quitting the team for good. Now I'm running 45 miles a week, and I'm a champion. A TEAM champion. We won. We did it together.
The season is over for me competitively, but there's still Regionals in another week or so. And I'm the unofficial team Motivator. Time to get my speechwriting on.
P.S.
Track starts November 29
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