9/5 Newsletter

A Very Busy Week

Since the last newsletter we've had two races and a team potluck.  That's kept things jam-packed.  You can find a recap of the Jackson Meet here.  I plan to have something similar for our home meet out tomorrow.  There are plenty of photos available from both Jackson and the Home Meet that you can view.  Thank you to Mindy Welker and everyone else who contributed to this!

Beyond that I did snap just a handful of pictures from today's fun day, which turned to out to be volleyball because of the pop-up rain shower.  

The Week Ahead

Monday 9/8 (3:30-5:00PM):  Neural Day at school.  There will be a pasta dinner later in the evening at Noah's house.

Tuesday 9/9 (3:30-5:00PM):  48-Hour Workout at Course.  We'll also discuss plans for Thursday's meet.

Wednesday 9/10 (3:30-4:45PM):  Pre-Race Workout at Course.

Thursday 9/11 (12pm-???):  Willow Springs Meet.  Athletes will be dismissed following the end of 4th period to change, eat lunch, and load the bus.  Bus leaves at noon.  More information below.  

Friday 9/12 (3:30-5:00PM):  Fun Day/Recover Run at school.  

Saturday 9/13 (On Own):  Easy Run and Strides.

Willow Springs Meet Preview

Outside of a potential trip to state, this Thursday's meet will be our longest trip of the season.  This meet is brand new for our program, but we wanted a chance to see how we match up against our likely postseason competition.  If we do end up in Class 1 this year as expected (stay tuned for that announcement in next week's newsletter), the challenge is that many of the more competitive schools are on the opposite side of our district in the lower central portion of the state.  Few of them ever run on this side of the state, so we had to go to them if we wanted a race.  The meet includes Dora, whose girls won the Class 1 state title last year and whose boys finished 7th, as well as Van Buren, whose girls finished 9th and whose boys finished 5th.  Beyond that are three additional schools who qualified for state last year in Class 1, 2, or 3.

In all the meet will feature 25 schools, most of whom aren't our usual competition.  The course runs through the fairways of the Willow Springs Municipal Golf Course.  For those who made it to North County last year, it's a fairly similar structure ... minus the slopes at both the start and the finish.  The course does have some rolling hills as well as some flatter portions near the start and finish.  That's the area where I would recommend most non-adventurous fans stay.  It's closest to the parking, which is right inside the main gate, and runners will pass through their three times including the beginning and end of the race.  The entire course is two loops, so anywhere is going to feature a second sighting of runners.  For the more adventurous, the region near the one mile will probably get the least amount of spectator traffic.

This meet does have separate JV and Varsity races (as well as middle school), but they don't follow the typical structure.  Usually when a meet has distinct varsity races, only seven runners per school are allowed to compete in them.  Everyone else would run JV.  However, the varsity races at this meet allow up to ten runners.  The JV races also aren't a full 5K.  Given these factors and the size of our team, the plan is to run everyone in the varsity races, with times as follows:

Girls:   5:15PM
Boys:   5:55PM

All schools will run together, but Class 1-2 schools will be separated from Class 3-5 schools for scoring purposes, with medals going to the top 20 in each group.  An award ceremony will follow the boys race for this, so feel free to stick around.  ​

Middle School Meet

As you likely noticed, we didn't have middle school races at our home meet this year.  That is because the official start of junior high practice is a week later for middle school than for high school.  However, they are still required to get the same number of practices before competing.  Most middle school athletes haven't reached the desired number by the time of our home meet.  To create an opportunity for more schools to attend, we moved the middle school races to September 17 when practice totals shouldn't be an issue.  There will be a single race for boys (5pm) and girls (5:30pm).  

This meet will help serve as a fundraiser for our team to help offset the additional costs of having professional timing at our high school meet.  For this reason, it is important that we have lots of help.  We will be timing the middle school meet ourselves like we have done previously for the high school races.  Our athletes will be working most of the positions that parents typically cover during the high school races.  This is a great opportunity for our athletes to learn to give back to the sport.  We could still use side-by-sides to serve as the rabbit/tortoise if parents are willing to drive and/or let their child do this.  If any parents would like to help in this capacity or another, please reach out to Mr. McLain.

Pasta Dinners

Thank you to everyone who volunteered to help with a pasta party.  At this point we still have one dinner (10/29) that needs a second family to help.  If you have not already signed up to help with a dinner, please consider doing so.  ​Given the size of our team, we really need every family to step up to help with a pasta dinner.  These are some of the best memories for runners in our program.  We want to be able to continue to offer these opportunities to our athletes, but that is dependent on parents helping out.  

You can see the current signup list below.  If you can help with one of the remaining dinners, you may sign up using this link or contact Mr. McLain.