Sophomore Year
Fall 2016
I returned to College Park in fall 2016 after having found somewhat of a social life and a whole new appreciation for/love of running. I hopped on the running2win (RIP) bandwagon that summer as I wanted to take training more seriously to gear up for my first cross country season in two years. I couldn’t wait I was practically counting down the days until the first day of practice! I loved coming to practice; as someone who never spoke/had friends in classes at that point, it was my main socialization time. There was a string of three weeks that semester where I went to practice every single day, hardly possible for busy upperclassmen.
Practices were HUGE that fall, or at least that’s what it seemed like. A ton of freshmen/transfers/new people in general showed up and seemed really committed to the club from the start. Two of those people were Shannon MacMaster and Julia Heiges, who are sitting in the living room with me as I type this (hi guys!). Anywho, the club was looking like it was really growing that fall! There were more girls running a variety of paces which made it easier to form training groups. I can recall doing multiple workouts with Kim Gerber, Olivia Sbrocco, and Rachel Norton that season and thinking how much better that was than the previous fall when I was constantly running by myself. Abby set a goal of bringing 20 girls to nationals that fall, and while we may not have reached that (we wound up bringing 16), we were starting to look like a REAL team!! Katrina and Luanne could not get over this and were especially proud after placing second at UVA that season.
My first xc race with the club!!
Fall 2016 was an interesting season for me personally. I hadn’t run xc in two full years since I hadn’t raced with the club the previous fall and I had never run any 6k’s. I was able to “ease” back into it at NC State which was a 5k before being forced to run an extra thousand meters. I was always a bigger fan of shorter, flatter track races than I was of longer, more gruelingly hilly cross country races, but I had forgotten how tough xc courses could be on the body machine. NC State, which was reportedly a fast course, proved to be quite a challenge. I ran a disappointing mid 24 minute 5k, but overall the times seemed slower than everyone expected and it was our first meet of the season. The real test came the following weekend at Lehigh University’s Paul Short run. I’m not gonna lie, I don’t remember much about this race, maybe I blacked out, perhaps it’s because it was three years ago. I was advised to kick when I hit the toilet sculpture and so I kicked my way to an automatic pr of 28: in the 6k. I lamented barely breaking 29. Luckily there were meets a plenty that fall and I got another chance at a 6k the following week at UVA. Unfortunately, the results from UVA were somehow messed up and I don’t remember my time from that day so I can’t compare it to the week before but fortunately they attributed a faster time to my name! I did not run a 25:11 that day but I know I improved a little bit from Lehigh the week before. I can confirm the next race I ran was my fastest of the season, a 27:32 at regionals, a full minute faster than my last go round on that course! I felt like I was *starting to* get the hang of 6k’s, just in time for nationals.
NATIONALS HYPE
I couldn’t have been more excited for my first trip to nationals with the club. I had actually come close to signing up for nationals in the spring of my freshman year, but I thought it would be weird if the first meet I signed up for was nationals, plus I had a Friday morning lab that I didn’t want to have to make up. Hershey Park did seem like a nicer place to experience nationals for the first time than the University of Indiana. Little did I know (until I was informed by people that had run there in high school like Julia), that the course was not only mired in hills but polluted by the stench of poop thanks to its placement next to a waste management facility.
Despite the somewhat disheartening course preview, I was still stoked. Just like I had for every meet that semester, I eagerly awaited for the travel email so I could memorize the car assignments, get that H20, read up on juicy meet information, and prepare for what would probably be the most memorable weekend of college thus far. Back in the days before I knew what exactly was going in the travel email before it was sent to the rest of the club, there were times when I would wake up in the middle of the night, check my email just to see if it was out yet (usually it was not), and go back to sleep.
On the crisp morning of November 12th, we club runners (except Matthew “Clutch” “Clewless” Clewley who was running a bit behind schedule) hopped into our personal vehicles and made our way to Hershey, PA. My parents, and many other parents and a few doggies, also drove up/down/east/west to support us with a splendidly planned tailgate. I’m talking tons of FOOD! Homemade baked goods, grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, fruit, granola bars, fruit snacks that were placed on one sleepy boi, you name it—all kept safe under the cover of Tenty McTentleson <3. I could only eye the food with longing, you see, as my race was the very last one of the day. I didn’t let this bother me too much (I stole some snacks for safekeeping in my bag) though because I had a jam-packed schedule of watching my teammates run in their respective races.
The day was off to a memetastic start with the men’s junior/senior/grad student race in which the Maryland men, led by Rob Kramer, absolutely crushed the mannequin challenge. More impressively, we then got to watch in awe as Rob went from last place to nearly medaling in the race while continuously stroking his “moustache.” Wanting to capture every moment, I ran from spot to spot on the course to snap pictures while cheering. Watching dozens of my teammates and hundreds of other NIRCA runners race was getting me anxious yet excited to finally make my nationals debut. We had a squad of five whole girls in the freshman/sophomore women’s race that afternoon, including my former roommate Eileen “the tank” Zohorsky. At long last, we five stripped down and got on the line to cap off the day of racing.
Consider yourselves lucky if you get to race at Richmond this fall because the hills at Hershey were no joke. It was a constant cycle of trudging up then bounding down it made it hard to find a consistent, steady pace. Trying not to let anything get me down at my first nationals, I kept pushing the whole race and felt like I was running well—surprising considering how bad I am at running hills. I searched for something left to give one last kick up the final hill into the finishing straightaway. My time was 28:11, slower than my pr at regionals, but that didn’t matter. My smile stretched so wide it scrunched the corner of my NIRCA cheek tattoo. I knew I had given it my best effort that day, and relative to other people whose times were around a minute slower on Hershey’s course than they were at Lehigh, I had done pretty well. My first national’s race was complete, and now it was time for post meet shenanigans!!
Us Maryland club runners gathered together to watch the awards ceremony (we had three individual award winners!) After posing for a very fall looking team picture, the girls showed off our very own staches for nashes with store-bought mustaches. Obviously our fake stashes were superior to any of the guys’ actual stashes. We left the course but the fun wasn’t over yet–we still had to take a trip to chocolate world! This was held at Hershey Park after all. XC Nationals 2016 was a sweet ride.
Ah, you thought this season was over already?! You thought wrong. Much like the spring before, I ended my racing that season with a half marathon, only this time it was in Annapolis. Having a half marathon and a season of college cross country running under my belt, I felt much less nervous about running the Annapolis half. This time I even had some company running with Rachel, Kim, and Olivia. The four of us were together for the first half of the race before I got left in the dust by Kim on that uphill bridge in the middle-ish part of the race. I just cannot do hills very well. I ran the rest of the race by myself and finished in a new personal best by three minutes. After the race consisted of me finding out that Briggs LOVES oysters (they were offering some raw ones to eat eww) and everyone trying to summon Ethan for our group airplane picture to no avail.
My first fantastic fall with the club was capped off a few weeks later with winter formal. I still remember receiving the Facebook invite to the event on the bus ride home for Thanksgiving break and RSVPing yes immediately. At formal, Scott presented me with the “Biggest Sweetheart” award. I was flattered and so so happy to be celebrating the end of the semester with a bunch of close friends. I actually dreaded going home for winter break. So much had changed in just a year. Season 3/8 was when I started loving college.
