Track Record*

*pun intended

"I believe that God made me for a purpose, but He also made me fast.

When I run, I feel His pleasure."

Eric Liddell

Here's the scoop on my track season, since I haven't really blogged much about it!

3/5/2011 Linfield Icebreaker, McMinnville Oregon:

3k steeplechase, 13:00, 2/2

3/17/2011 Charles Bowles Springbreak Classic, Salem Oregon:

5k, 19:52.2, 2/3

*This was the first time I'd ever broke 20 minutes in a 5k!! I've been praying for that since my senior year of high-school. Praise God!

3/26/2011 Club Northwest Invitational, Seattle Washington:

3k steeplechase, 12:40.2, 3/3

4/1/2011 Willamette Invitational (Celebration of Distance), Salem Oregon:

3k steeplechase, 12:13.51, 5/6

*This is a season and career PR for me! I also broke our school record by more than 6 seconds! That race also put me at second in the conference, although now I'm more like 5th. I was really needing a solid steeple race, as my first two of the season had been significantly slower than last year.

4/8/2011 Northwest Relays, Oregon City Oregon:

open 3k (without steeples), 11:20.92, 1/9

*Again, I broke the school record, this time in the open 3k and by only 2 seconds!

4/16/2011 Lewis & Clark Invitational, Portland Oregon:

3k steeplechase, 12:30.2, 3/7

*My dad and two sisters got to see this race!

4/29-30/2011 Pacific Twilight, Forest Grove Oregon:

1500m, 5:18.00 35/44 (3rd in my heat though!)

*Last year I ran 5:19 in 3 times in a row for the 1500m. I really wanted a PR in this race. I got it, but only by one second...........

5k, 19:55.11 33/39

*I was hoping for a PR in the 5k, but I'm still happy that I broke 20 again!

Conference is May 12-14, and I race steeplechase on the 13th! I'm looking forward to this race a lot! My dad, grandparents, and Jason will be there. I have some great goals and plan to go all out! I will keep you posted, and hopefully will get pictures soon!

Did you figure out the pun?

Answered Prayers

"In the 3,000 meter steeplechase, Cross finished fifth with a school-record time of 12:13.51 bettering her previously set Cascade Collegiate Conference qualifying time. The second-year Warrior ran the second fastest time in the conference this season, as she broke Corban's school-record by more than six seconds." To read the full article, click here. The race, the Willamette Invitational, took place on Friday, April 1.

I'm very thankful for how my track season has been going, especially after a not so great cross-country season! And I'm definitely giving God the credit! This is a career best steeple time for me! I also finally broke 20 in the 5k, on the TRACK no less! Just before spring break I ran a 19:52 at the Willamette Dual Meet. (Maybe I need to run on Willamette's track more often?). I never expected to break 20 on the track. I can't handle running in circles! But I did. It's all God. And it totally goes back to the idea of surrendering my timeline. I expected to break 20 in cross this season, and even hoped to break it last year. It didn't make sense that I wouldn't! I was a bit confused that I didn't. But God know what He was doing. And He still answered my prayers, but in HIS timing.

Conference Steeplechase Pictures

Conference Track, Gresham, OR

I don't have the pictures yet, but yesterday I raced steeplechase for the second time and at the Conference Meet! I was really happy about the race, I had a 13 second PR with a time of 12:23 and placed 7th, the only freshman to score in that race. I even did a lot better on most of the water jumps! It was good. And I have a lot more potential in that race, so I'm excited for next year and learning to "run smarter." It was such a good end to the season and I'm so thankful Jason could be there! My teammate Jen and I consider "Your Are My Joy" by David Crowder our theme song and I would sing the lines over and over in my head: "and He set me on fire, and I am burning alive; with His breath in my lungs, I am coming undone"...it was definitely God that got me through the race!

Longest Weekend of My Life!!

This weekend has been the longest weekend of my life! On Friday night I went to bed at midnight, because I stayed up to pack. Then I got up at 9:30a on Saturday to eat, pack some more, and leave by 11 for the track meet, Pacific Twilight, in Forest Grove, OR. At the meet is raced in steeplechase for the first time ever. This is a 3K (almost 2 mile) race, which means it is 7.5 laps. Each lap has 5 steeple barriers on it, 4 "dry" and 1 "wet" (water-jump). As I posted before, my coach wanted me to try this race because he thought I had the endurance and stamina and would qualify for conference and score points for our team. Well, the qualifying time was 14:10. My goal was 7 min miles, and I finished mile 1 at 6:37. I finished the race at 12:36!! Which was faster than my goal AND qualified me for conference!!! Here are some pics:

Jumping one of the "dry' barriers. Notice my tongue. Yes, I stick my tongue out when I jump hurdles and they caught it on camera!

Approaching the "wet" barrier. My teammate Jen is in the water.

Landing the "wet" barrier. I need to work on my landings a bit...

Coming out of the water pit.

It was a really fun race and a lot easier than I thought it would be! I'm very happy I qualified and that it's in a race where I have a good chance of scoring for our team! And, because I qualified, I get to stay for Conference, which is May 13-15. I race on the 14th at 4:30. I told Jason that if I qualified and had to stay I wanted to fly him out here for my birthday (May 12th), Conference, and then the drive home with me. So last night I bought his ticket!! Woohoo!!! Nine days!!

After the meet I went to Solid Rock church in Portland. It was a great church service! I really enjoyed it! I got home around 11pm. Now, my team-mate Mel was going to leave at 4am on Sunday. The rest of us running girlies wanted to surprise her with breakfast and coffee and card, so we had to get up at 3am. Because I was gone most of the day Saturday and on Sunday by 5pm we had to be completely moved into our new dorm for these next two weeks, I had to stay up and pack. I took a short "nap" from 2-3am, got up and surprised Mel for breakfast. Then I took another short nap from 4:15 to 5:30am, when us running girlies again got up to be there for a team-mate. Two of our XC girls were running the Eugene Marathon, which was an hour away and started at 7am. So we drove down to that, spent the morning trying to figure our how to get to where they'd be on the course, missed them finishing, and then had to rush back for a 1pm mandatory orientation in our new dorm.

This is a picture of a dog I saw at the marathon:

After orientation, it was moving and cleaning. It took a car trip down for my stuff and later one for Kate's stuff. We had to move all our stuff down from a second floor room, to the car, and then up to a second floor room in a dorm with no elevator!! It was a lot of work!! And we had to deep clean our old room too which took about 1.5 hours!!

Once we finally got to our new room, I still had to get my over-distance (long run) in for the day. After I skyped my family, I drove to Bush Park to run. I had to quit the run 30 mins in because my shin was shooting pain up my leg and I couldn't put any weight on it, so I could barely move.

After my run I still had to come back and unpack my room before I could finally get to bed at 11:30pm.

Whew.

This was my weekend, on a little over 2 hours of sleep!!

Lewis and Clark Invitational

Same old story. Again. I ran the 1500m and got the same time as the last two times I've ran it! (5:20...ok this time it was actually 5:19.93, but in my book that's the same time) And again I felt fast and strong, until I looked at my watch and saw the time and was very disappointed. This time I did take second in my heat (the slow heat), but that too was a bit disappointing because I led the race for probably about 1100m. Grr. I have been having a hard time figuring out how to improve my time (and QUALIFY!) because I can't pinpoint a mental breakdown or even a point where I slow down. But my coach asked me how much each lap hurt, and I said realized that I just feel strong, I don't hurt. So, I'm going to run this next race to make each lap hurt more than the last and to be totally spent at the end! It'll be my last chance too, because this weekend (24th) I'll be running a 5k (yuck) and then our last meet before conference is the 1st, where I will run the 1500m to make it hurt.

Prewitt Prom!

Last night our dorm, Prewitt, hosted a girls-only prom for all the girls on campus. It was my FIRST prom ever! At first I was a bit awkward and nervous...cause I've never danced...at all... But then Jen and Courtney came and I was a lot more comfortable with them so I had a lot of fun trying to dance! It was fun to wear my black dress again too! And I was glad there were no boys =) I do wish MY boy could have seen me though! =)

Before the prom I had a track meet at Western Oregon University. I was one of two Corban runners running at that meet, everyone else was in Oregon City at a relay meet. I competed really well and felt awesome about my race (the 1500m), until I saw my time...5:20... I am REALLY hoping for a 5:11! To qualify for conference! But I really think I'm almost there!

Pictures From the Seattle Meet (mentioned previously)

Club Northwest Invitational, Seattle, WA

This weekend we had a track meet in Seattle. Kate and I flew into Seattle around 8 in the morning, but were not going to be picked up until 1230pm. So we stored our bags at the airport (it cost me $19!!) and took the transit system downtown ($5 round-trip!) We basically walked all over Seattle. But is was SUPER fun! First we stopped at good ole Starbucks (because I had a giftcard) to get coffee and I got a pumpkin scone. Then we headed towards Pike's Market. Walking through there we smelled this yummy Russian bakery, and stopped there to get a sweet bread roll with Marion berries and sweet cream frosting. It was delicious! We kept walking around and exploring. We even went to the Art Museum...without paying. You see, their sign at the ticket booth said suggested price, $15. Well, we took that to mean you didn't have to pay if you didn't want to! So we walked in. While we were looking around a security guard came up to us. My first thought was "Oh my goodness, she knows we didn't pay!" But she said to Kate, "You can't have backpacks in here. I don't know why they didn't take it from you at the front desk. You need to take it to the coat storage. It's free." Gee. I wonder why they didn't take it! Lol. Needless to say we just left and headed up toward Niketown, stopping by Mountain Hardwear on the way. We finished our day with sub sandwiches before heading back to the airport.

The meet was pretty good too! I ran the 1500m with a time of 5:20, which is a PR. I hope to hit 5:11 to qualify for Conference!

Wilamette Invitational, Salem, OR

This weekend was our first track meet and I was so blessed to have Monica come visit too! She is such an awesome friend, I'm so thankful for her and that we can still hang out =). I was really nervous to run my first college meet, but now I am looking forward to the next one! I ran the 1500m. My goal was to hit 5:25. I got confused about which lap I was on and didn't realize it was my last lap until 200m left! So I had a lot left when I finished! I finished in 5:26.01, 8th out of 10. I am looking forward to the next meet when I won't get confused and can give a lot more in the race =) I hope to break 5 by the end of the season! I also ran first leg for the 'B' team 4x4oom relay. Now, I don't even know why they make our 'B' team run this...because we all run slower than 64 second 400ms, whereas our 'A' team runs in the 58s and 60s. So we are significantly slower! We finished about 200m behind the last team...but at least we all ran our best! Overall, it was a great meet! Praise God!