Sectionals today. The course was one I've never been to before, a golf course in Decatur. It would have been a nice course because it is flat, but with the amount of rain we've had this week, it was ridiculously wet and muddy. The course officials told us that Friday most of the course was actually underwater, which is believable because when we turned into the parking lot, but lower part of the golf course was a lake--literally. The girls had it the easiest because they ran first. I feel bad because the AA schools went after us on the same course and it was soupy by then. The boys had a hard time. By the time we got there, I had to go to a coaches' meeting and get the kids ready with their chips and bibs. They reported to the start 20 min. before the race, so I didn't have any time to get in a run while the girls were warming up. When the girls started I ran around to all parts of the course, and boy was it sloppy. At 1 mile, my top girl (a freshman) was in 15th. She was so strong and her strength is at the end of the race, so I knew she was good to go. At 2 miles she was moving up, but still in 14th. Then I saw her make a move with 1/2 mile to go. She ended in 10th place, beating all the girls in our region (makes me wish she would've taken 1st at regionals, of course). She gets to move on to state next weekend, so one more week of practice. I think she has a shot at all-state honors (top 25). She took 25 seconds off her pr on this ridiculously marshy course, and next week promises to be dry. And the state course is fast anyway. As a team, the girls didn't do as well. My 2nd runner has been hurting and she didn't run well, and although I have a strong top 4, my 5th runner was way back there. The boys had a more difficult race, since they were running on the course that had just been destroyed by the girls. No great times--some of them were just mentally not there, especially my two seniors. As a team they got beat by two teams we beat last week. That was a downer. I probably ran more than 1 mile on the course, but I'll just post as a mile. I was running great up till Friday. I blame it on the parent/teacher conferences. When I got home from the race, all I wanted was to shower and then take a nap. So that's what I did.
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