My Awesome Adventure In Albany

Joan & I at the School Visitation

Hey everyone, as you may know, I spent June 2^nd -5^th in Albany, NY, for the Freihofer’s Run for Women 5k.  Going to Albany was an incredible adventure and I had an amazing time there.  I had so many awesome experiences while there that I just had to tell you all about.  The hotel I stayed at was just down the street from the capitol building, which was really cool to look at on walks being it was an older style of building than what I would normally see in Charlotte.  Right across the street from the capital building was an office building park that they held the awards for the race on and some running events for the smaller children.  The park was really cool with a lot of abstract sculptures on it, one even looked like a turtle on stilts, and it was hilarious.  There was also a building in the park that kind of looked like a sideways egg, it was a very cool building to just look at, everyone loved it and it even was on our race t-shirts, which were bright green by the way and all of the words and pictures on it were pink, talk about a fabulous shirt.  I will defiantly wear it for as long as I can, it matches my bedroom so that adds a level of awesomeness to it J. On Friday, I went to Bethlehem Central Middle School, where I had the privilege of talking with some of the students alongside Joan Benoit Samuelson.  Oh my gosh was that special, I was nervous when I had to answer questions because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to focus since I was watching Joan the whole time wondering if it was a dream or not.  I had a blast though, Joan was so nice and is a fun person to hang out with.  I was able to get my picture with her and I think I’m going to print it out and hang it on my wall with all of my running posters so I can always remember that moment forever and ever. 

After that amazing honor I went back to the hotel to go to the press conference for the race.  It was super exciting being there with so many amazing professional female runners.  I sat at a table with some of the master’s women, Joan Samuelson, Carmen Ayala-Troncoso, Lisa Harvey, and Lori Kingsley.  They were all super nice and I enjoyed sitting next to them and chatting.  During the expo George, the director of the race, presented Victoria Michalek, the oldest runner of the race, and I our race numbers.  Our numbers each were our age so my number was 14, how cool is that!  That night for dinner my dad and I ate with Lori and got to know her better, she is a great, friendly person, who is a joy to be around. 

start line less than a minute before the start

The next morning at the race I was trying to decide where to do my warm-up, when Carmen told me of a cool place to run down the street.  As I headed down the street I saw Benita Willis going down as well.  So I was able to do my warm-up where amazing runners do theirs as well, that totally pumped me up.  At the end of the race down the final straight-away I was super tired and was having trouble kicking in.  Lori was right in front of me and saw that I was having trouble so she in courage me to kick in to the finish.  At the end of the race I was a little upset with how my race went, but Lori was right there to cheer me up.  For that I am very grateful, Lori will always be a great friend to me.  After the race my calf was a little tight and sore, so I got a massage therapist to work on my legs, it was awesome. I have never gotten a massage before, so it was really cool.  That afternoon I had lunch with Dulce Rodriguez and even though she didn’t speak a lot of English and I defiantly didn’t speak much, if any, Spanish, she was still great to sit with. She is incredibly nice and it was cool to sit next to a three time Olympian.

The whole time I was there the hotel had breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us.  I enjoyed it because they always had doughnuts and cookies, aw the joy of having the race’s major sponsor being a baking company (Freihofers).  The doughnuts were SOOOO amazing, I brought a box home with me. Yummy!.

 I had an amazing experience while at Albany and I want to thank everyone who was part of the race so much for an amazing time there, everyone was very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.     

What's Going On

(my doggy Jake)



Hey everyone!  I hope everyone has been having a great summer so far.  I just wanted to give you all an update on what has been going on lately around here.

First of all, the recent June issue of Running Times has an amazing article in it written by Jonathan Beverly that I think many of you would like.  It is called "Let The Kids Run", and it has the truth about children and mileage.  You guys should check it out, I really liked it.  Also there is a podcast available on the Running Times website where I describe my weekly training schedule.  Very weird to here my voice on a podcast!

Second, I have to say I am VERY excited.  On Saturday (June 4th) I am going to be racing in the Freihofer's Run for Women 5k in Albany, NY.  I was lucky enough to be invited up to run in it and will be flying up on Thursday.  So it's not very long before we leave!  On Friday I get to take part in their athlete visitation program and go with other invited athletes to talk to kids at local schools about big healthy and living a healthy life style.  That will be so much fun, I can't wait!  My training has been going very well and so I am really looking forward to that race on Saturday as well.  It will be fun to spend the weekend in Albany!

I hope everyone has a great week and hopefully I will have a new blog up next Monday to tell you all about how the weekend went. :)

Track 10k - Here I Come

Last Friday afternoon, April 29^th, I went to Radford University for a track 10,000 meters race.  I was so excited because this was my first track 10k.  I couldn’t wait to see how fast I could go for 10k when it was on a perfectly flat course (a track).  The ride in the car took over 3 hours and it was horrible because I wanted to get there so badly.  I was so glad when we finally arrived and I could walk around and get out of the car.  My Dad and I went and got me checked into the meet and picked up my number to wear.  I think it’s so cool to be in races that require a hip number, just like in the major track meets I see on TV.

As we waited for time for the 10k to begin, I watched some of the long jump.  It was amazing how far they can jump and how coordinated you have to be in order to do that event.  I would never make it as a long jumper, I don’t have that type of coordination.  But it was very cool to watch. 

When it was time for me to warm-up, I jogged around a big grass field and listened to some new music I had just downloaded to my MP3 player.  Country music always gets me in the mood to race.  Love me some country music. J   Then I did some strides, switched into my racing flats (Mizuno Ronins), and did my drills.  I was starting to get into the “zone”.    As I entered the track my head started to fill up with different things to do during the race to help me and butterflies started to flutter their way across my stomach.  I met the other competitors, then went to the starting line and pushed the nerves aside, it was time to race!  

When the gun went off, I immediately took the lead and tried to get right into pace.  In a 25 lap race its best to try to get comfortable in your pace as quickly as you can.  There was a hard wind against us on the back straightaway and turn but I didn’t think too much of it the first few laps.  I was able to stay right on goal pace for the first 2 miles, but then the effects of the wind started to take hold.  You had to push the pace into the wind to keep from slowing down and then push again with the wind in order to make up any lost time, all of this made hard for me to get into a sustainable rhythm.  I remember my legs hurting more after each straightaway with the wind then they did before it.  I was able to keep the pace from falling off to much but realized that this probably wasn’t the day I would break 36 minutes.  During the last mile I pushed as best I could and practiced not thinking about how tired I was getting but rather concentrating on one lap at a time.  I used little things to help distract me from the fatigue of the race, like the guy on the infield offering cups of water to the runners as we passed by and how annoyed he looked that I never took any (sorry dude but it was only a 10k).  With 600 left I started pushing as hard as I could and on the last turn I gritted my teeth and give it everything I had left.  I came across the finish line in first place in 36:14, a new stadium record.  Not bad for a debut. J

Off To College I Go!

This Sunday night, April 17^th, I went up to High Point University to get in a fast 5K on the track.  When we arrived to the campus that afternoon I was taken away by how beautiful the campus was.  As we made our way to the track, I stared out the window the whole time looking at the university campus. 

When we parked at the track and got out I was bursting with excitement about how perfect the day was. When we went into the stands I was amazed by the track it looked awesome and I couldn’t wait to run on it.  My dad and I then went to check in at the tent.  I found out that I was assigned lane 1.  Everything was going perfect.  As we headed back to the stands we ran into Caitlyn, Jordan, and Meagan, I was really happy since I did not know that they would be there.  After talking with them for a little while we saw Jenna and were able to say “Hi”, since she was busy running around doing a great job of running the meet.

We watched some of the races and cheered for the runners.  Then I saw my grandma and gave her a hug.  I was excited to see her and on top of that, it was her birthday.  After talking with her for a while, I went and started my warm up for the race.

I went to final check in and picked up my lane number.  I went onto the track, switched my shoes, and put the number on, as my excitement was building.  I went onto the infield and did my strides and drills as nerves mixed into my excitement.  Then we got lined up, the announcer called us to the line and the gun fired.  We went off and Meagan took the lead getting me off on pace.  The first mile went very smoothly with Megan pacing me, we hit 5:20, right on plan.  I am very grateful to her for driving to High Point to pace me for the first mile.  But soon after I started getting tired as I got deeper into the race.  Laps 8, 9, & 10 were really hard as I struggled not to slow down.  I hit 2 miles in 10:51.  With 600 meters to go I pushed to speed up.  I was 16:28 at 3 miles and then the last 200 meters was really tough, but as I rounded the turn into the final straight away I saw my little sister Rose trying to get on the track, this made me smile and I sprinted with all I had left.  I crossed the line at 17:06, a new PR for me and I got the win.  It was not as fast as I had hoped, but when you give all you got and get a new PR and win, you cannot complain. 

I was given a bouquet of flowers for winning.  I gave them to my grandma, because I got the PR on her birthday.  I was so excited that I got a PR, that I texted a friend as soon as I got to the car.  The meet was amazing and I had a wonderful time.  What an awesome start to Spring Break!

A New PR For Me!

Last Saturday, March 26^th, I ran a 5K on the track at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC.  The Charlotte Running Club (CRC) was trying to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest 100 by 5K relay.  I was lucky enough to run a leg of the relay, because who would not want to break a world record.  When I arrived it was raining and cold, I wasn’t happy about this.  The past 3 weekends had been beautiful, what happened, why did it have to rain this weekend, why not next weekend? As I stepped out of the car I could see the tents set up for timing and hanging out in.  After I said hi to my dad, who had come out earlier to support all of his runners, I went to the press box to keep warm and dry.  I got to chat with Caitlin, Aaron, and John and watch a few of the runners complete their legs of the relay.  Then my dad came up to let me know it was time to warm up.  As I did my warm up, I just kept getting more and more excited.  As I did my drills and got ready to go to the starting line felt pumped.  I was not nervous at all!

Once I grabbed the baton, I took off.  The adrenaline I felt over took me the first lap and ran too fast (74 – Yikes!).  But who wouldn’t be super excited?  After the first lap was able to get back on pace, I enjoyed having people cheering for me every 200 meters as well as Megan, Jordan, and Catlin cheering from the infield.  It really helped me keep going when I would get tired.   About halfway through I started to feel that first lap and started feeling tired.  Mike Kahn was able to help me keep pushing through the pain when he ran across the field with a boom box blasting; the sudden noise scared me and I jumped out of my skin which gave me a jolt to keep going.  As the laps continued to click off, I could feel myself slowing down slightly, so I intentionally pushed harder as the rain kept coming down.  With 600 to go I gave another big push, kicking up water as I when making my butt and back wetter than it already was.  With one lap left I heard the bell and everyone cheering, I sprinted hard to the finish and handed off the baton.  I was so glad I did not drop the baton.  When my dad told me I had gotten a PR, I was ecstatic.  I thought if I could run 17:08 (17:09.1 officially) on an asphalt track by myself and in the pouring rain, just think what I could run on a good day with competition.  They race got me wanting to run a race on the track to see if maybe I could break 17:00 for a 5K in my next race.

My First Half Marathon

(photo by Bill Shires)

Hey everyone, hope you all had an amazing weekend, I certainly did!

This Saturday, March 12th, I ran my first half marathon, the Alston & Bird Corporate Cup Half Marathon in down-town Charlotte.  I was so excited all week in anticipation of the race, I just couldn't wait!  My goal was to try and hold a 6:15 pace, as that is the pace I do my aerobic threshold tempo runs at.  I knew I could handle that pace pretty comfortably for the first 6-8 miles, the last 5-7 miles would be the unkown though.

When the day of the race finally came, I was so ready.  I decided to wear my long sleeve Charlotte Running Club shirt as it a little cold at the beginning of the race.  I had also decided earlier in the week that I would wear my hair in pig-tail braids in honor of Sally Meyerhoff who had passed away last Tuesday in a tragic bike accident.  She also wore her hair like that when she raced.  So after my mom braided my hair I was ready to head to the race.

At the race I did a short warm-up run and some drills and headed to the starting line.  At the start of the race they had group prayer and I thought to myself  "Sally this one is for you".   Then the gun went off and I started on my first half marathon.  The first 3 miles went by pretty quick and were pretty easy as I settled into my pace.  At 3 miles my Dad jumped in and passed me by on his bike and would jump ahead of me a mile or so at time and wait for me to come by so he could cheer.    I felt really good during the first half of the race, as I passed 5 miles in 30:48 and still felt comfortable.  Somwhere between miles 8 and 9 we went up a big hill by Myers Park High School and once I got to the top I could start to feel it.  It was starting to get hard.  But I remembered Sally and a book I recently read ("The Running Dream" by Wenderlin Van Drannen) about a high school runner who lost her lower leg in an accident and started running again with a prostetic leg.  It reminded me how lucky I was to have the opportunity to race like this, so I put my head down and pushed on. 

(photo by Mom)



At 10 miles (61:48) I was still ahead of goal pace and really appreciating all the fan support we were getting on the course.  I was able to push the next mile or two pretty well and then we got to east Moorehead Street and the final 1.5 mile climb back up towards down-town.  My dad had told me to take that section one hill at a time (there are 3 hills with a short break between each) and that is what I did. It seemed like on each hill I saw someone I knew who was cheering for me and that definately helped.   Finally with a half mile to go the hills where done and I turned onto the final straight away.  I could see the crowds cheering the runners on and it definately helped having them there to get me to the finish line.  When I crossed the line I looked at my watch and saw 1:21:15, I was estatic!  That was a 6:12 per mile pace, 3 second per mile better than I had hoped for.  I had won the women's division of the race and beat my goal in my debut at the distance!  This was even better than I had hoped for.  Like I said, I had an amazing weekend!  :o)

My Trip To San Diego



This past weekend my Dad and I went to San Diego for me to run in the USATF National XC Championship.  We left Thursday and came back home on Sunday.  It was definately a crazy 4 days!

Thursday didn't start out as planned.  We were going to fly from Charlotte to Houston and then from Houston to San Diego.  However in the middle of the night before we left, our flight from Houston to San Diego got cancelled.  Luckily my Dad happened to be awake and was able to get us booked on a later flight, but we'd have a 6 hour lay-over instead of 2 hours.  Things hadn't started out as planned but we made the best of it including watching Princess Bride on his computer in the airport terminal to help pass the time.

We finally made it to San Diego and got checked into our hotel by 9:00 PM west coast time.  Not long after we checked in it was lights out and off to sleep, we were both exhausted from the day of travel.

On Friday, my dad and I got to pick up my race packet and t-shirt in the morning and then around 11:30 we went next door to the course and I was able to run it a few times (it was a 2k loop) to see how I liked it.  The loop was all grass, flat the first 1k and rolling the second kilometer.  I really liked it and was excited about the race the next day.

Later in the afternoon, around 2:00, dad and I met with Jonathan Beverly the Editor-In-Chief at Running Times.  Mr Beverly is currently writing a story on kids and running mileage and was very nice to ask to for our input.  He was very nice our conversation was fun.   Afterwards Dad and I hung around the room until dinner time then went to Subway to eat.  At 7:00 we went to the technical meeting and got the low-down on the race.

The next morning was finally the day of the race, pretty exciting!  When I woke up I jogged the 2k course once as a shake-out jog to get the blood pumping (not that that was a problem).  We relaxed in our rooms the rest of the morning watching the women's master race on the internet and saw Colleen De Reuck dominate the rest of the field.  Once the masters men's race started we headed over to the race.  At the race we watched the remainder of the race and cheered for Jonathan as he came by each time (it was a 4 lap race).  After the Masters race, my dad and I bumped into David and Jane Monti, from Race Results weekly and NYRR, how we had met this past summer when they brought me up to run in the NYRR's Women's Mini 10k.  It was awesome to see them again and they were sweet as always. 

About 30 minutes before my race started I started my warm-up jog and started getting excited.  After the jog I did my high-knee and butt-kick drills and changed into my racing flats.  Then I went into the starting area and did a few strides on the starting straightaway.  After wishing me luck and helping me find spoton the line, Dad headed down the straightaway to find a good stop to cheer from.  The announcer started to get us all ready to go then we had a delay because  the TV channel covering the race had to go to commercial.  Then as we got ready again we had another delay when one of the competitors realized she forgot to put on her timing chips. 

As we kept having delays I started thinking about the teams around me and my comeptitors and started to feel intimidated, which is not what I wanted to have happen.  Then the gun went off and I didn't get out fast enough and got caught in back of the pack.  The rest of the first lap of the race I felt good and was moving up places pretty consistently.  The second lap I started to get tired and wasn't passing people as often and by the half way point I was starting to feel pretty tired and discouraged.  I wasn't where I thought I would be at this point.  At the beginning of the 3rd lap I should have started pushing and gotten agressive as was my plan, however I didn't, I was behind and tired and just went into tempo run mode.  I never put myself into the race for the top like I know I was in shape to do, so once it got hard I just wasn't motivated to push it in.   I stayed at tempo pace until 100 meters to go then sprinted it in to hold off a few girls, but that was a little to late to change gears.  Once I finished I was very disappointed in myself.  I had blown a great opportunity to show everyone who I was.  My finishing time was 23:11 and I had finished 19th.  That time is equivalent to a slow tempo workout for me so I was sad with how I had performed.

I stayed after my event to watch open women's and men's races, which was awesome.  I cheered for Shalane F, Molly H, Lisa K, Magda, and Kara G. during their race.  I was incredibly impressed by the dominance Shalane showed the rest of the field during her race, to win the championship.  During the Men's race my dad and I cheered for Abdi the whole race and were very impressed by Brent V when he broke away from the large pack and won the race.  Also while watching the men's race I had the privilidge to meet the 2010 Foot Locker Champ Aisling Cuffe (who also won the race I was in).  She was super nice and was great to meet her.

Afer the races were over my dad and I headed back to the hotel.  On the way back we bumped into Greg McMillan and my dad introduced me to him.  My dad had recently met Greg at the Super Distance Summit that Coach Simmons at Queens Univserity put on in Charlotte in January.  Mr. McMillan was very nice and my dad tells me he is a very good coach as well.

Back at the hotel I had some thinking to do.  I needed to down load my thoughts from the race and learn what I could from them.  Dad was great in helping me do this.  We spent alot of time talking and coming up with a game plan to help me be more consistent in my races.  After our talk I was excited about our plans and feeling better about everything.  Even though the race didn't go as I would have like it to go, what was done was done, and all I could do now was learn what I could from it. 

Now that my trip is done it was time to go home the next morning.  Our flights went smoothly for the most part and we got home about when we had planned.  Just in time for bed and to ready for another week at school and my regular routine.  Report cards come out this week!