Cedarville University Yellow Jackets

June 6, 2011

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
--Theodore Roosevelt

This blog is coming to you pretty late, mostly because every time I sit down to write it, I end up counting blinks of my cursor on a nice white blank page. Typical post-Nationals writer’s block, I suppose. The experience of NAIA Nationals is just a hard thing to write about in a little blog that is supposed to be simple and concise. The problem certainly isn’t a lack of things to write about (see the novel I wrote for last year’s Nationals). For me (the self-proclaimed perfectionist and self-conscious writer who takes most things in life way too seriously), there is too much I want to tell you about the meet, from the inside jokes to the life lessons learned, that to leave any out feels like I’m committing some kind of injustice.

And yet, I realize that there is only so much I can write here, because, let’s be frank...I don’t really have time to write a novel, and you don’t really have time to read one. Probably right now, you’re begging me to move on from this rambling and get straight to the action anyway.

So I’ll try to keep this simple. If you want all the awesome details of stories alluded to here, feel free to ask me, seriously. But fo rnow, I’m going to jump right in and just start writing.

The weekend (starting on Thursday) marked not only the start of my third outdoor NAIA Nationals, but also the last NAIA Nationals any team at Cedarville will attend due to the NCAA switch. Looking back on these three years, I realize now more than ever how each Nationals competition characterizes itself so uniquely in my mind. Freshman year was all about the100 degree heat that melted off your hip numbers, dancing in water geysers, and learning to handle nerves as the sudden little fish in the big pond. Sophomore year brought around more sweltering heat and the lessons of how to mentally and physically get through three 400’s in three days and also how to say goodbye to close friends. So what was this junior year all about?

In trying to answer that question, refer to the quote above about “the man [or woman] in the arena.” Coach Marsh read us that quote before the end of our traditional team meeting the night before competition began. On his own, Coach Marsh already gives motivational speeches with enough awesome to conjure in everyone’s mind the most poignant scenes of Remember the Titans. But this quote stuck with me that night and now as I look back, seemed to really embody the general feel of Cedarville’s final showing at the NAIA National Championships.

For me, personally, this year more than any other year has left me with a new respect for those so often overused words of “overcoming adversity.” From the first day of competition, different challenges continued to present themselves. All our athletes the first day had to battle through some pretty rainy/windy conditions, and as Justin and Corey would tell you, it’s not great fun running a hurdle race on a slippery wet track. Yet from this first day, I saw our athletes stepping up to the line ready to simply put, do their best no matter what conditions. That night I got to cheer Meghan on to a PR of over 20 secondsin the 3000 meter steeple and Hannah in the 10K who moved up several spots from her original ranking.

And I can’t help but comment on Blagg’s crazy first leg of the 4 x 800 where he looked like he should be joining our long sprinter group next year. But by the last day of the meet, it seemed things were just starting to get more difficult for all of us athletes, battling tight hamstrings, sore shins, disappointing races, disqualifications, a marathon, and stomach flu.

Now I might interject here with a little rabbit trail about how I have this secret metaphor in my head, I generally keep to myself, where I’m always comparing track athletes to gladiators. Obviously, I don’t mean to downplay the horrible reality of those poor souls during Roman times and the metaphor kind of breaks down in terms of the whole, you know, immorality/murder aspect...but when you have a person in a uniform leading you in a straight line through an entrance into a big open arena with hundreds of people watching and it’s just you and your spikes and the other competitors about to go at it, well, it’s really tempting not to just bust out quoting Russell Crowe (at least for me, anyway).

And when I walked to the start of the 400 meters that first day, I think this gladiator-type feeling, exacerbated by the sheer pressure/excitement/adrenaline of a National meet, is why that “person in the arena” quote resonated so greatly with me. I mean, that’s really, at its most basic level, what this sport of track is: you step out on the track or runway or ring, and you are not alone against your competitors as much as you are alone fighting against yourself, your best times, your decision to give it everything or give mostly everything.

Some people might view our NAIA trip as less than spectacular because of some disappointing races and the fact that we had less All-Americans than we’ve had in the past. But when I think of almost everyone’s efforts stepping out into the arena—despite injuries, ailments, or just the general nervousness of a big meet, I think there’s a lot to be proud of.

I know it’s pretty typical to talk about “overcoming adversity” after a big meet like this, but for me it never felt more real. I spent the night before my final not sleeping but awakened by some kind of stomach flu. During the day as I contemplated whether or not to run, that quote kept playing through my mind along with a prayer that if I did run, God would give me the strength I needed to get around the track just one time. And this is when I learned the best part of “daring greatly”:

Dare greatly and you put yourself in a position to be a medium, a channel if you will, to firsthand experience God’s strength working through you. For me, that solidified itself in the fact that I actually did make it around the track when I decided I was going to run, feeling His strength in a race like never before. This was a blessing I will definitely carry with me for the rest of my life. While I was surprised and ecstatic about the actual outcome of the race, more than anything else I was thankful I ran simply because I really experienced what it’s like to completely rely on His strength that is so much greater than mine. It’s not every day you experience such a thing so clearly.

I know this is maybe on the “deep” side for a little track blog, but this is what this Nationals was all about for me. After one of my most difficult years at Cedarville in many areas of my life, experiencing God’s strength in the midst of my weakness was more than awesome and I’ll never forget it. It will always be a reminder to me of those words Coach Marsh read that first night, that it is not the critic that counts, but the person standing in the arena, ready to dare greatly, win or lose.

And how much more does this apply outside of track and sport? I’m an idealist in some ways; I like to believe that everyone has a fair shot at their dreams and such. So for me, daring greatly as a way for God to work through you in whatever way He sees fit has to really be the best way to live life; nothing is impossible for Him.
So yeah, some pretty inspiring life lessons from this little track meet the other weekend. At least for me, anyway. I don’t know if I conveyed it all in the best way, but I thought I’d try.

I admit, a week outside of track season being over, I already miss everyone. May Term was awesome this year and I always feel so much closer to everyone afterwards. I will especially miss all the wonderful dinners the boys cooked us in attempts to impress. I will miss the randomish of water fights and hard practices and ridiculous dinner conversations (how does a guy non-creepily get a pretty girl’s number anyway?) and maybe even Matt’s mullet. Seriously, my team is the best.

But I also wanted to say thank you to a few great people in my track life, and I’m pretty sure I speak for everyone else on the team.

First, thank you to all our awesome teammates who drove to cheer us on at Nationals (namely the Katie-Joy-Jordan car). Thanks for your hugs and cheers and just general awesomeness. Joy, thanks for being my 400 meter kindred spirit (before and after races) and warming up with me to 1) keep my nerves at bay and 2) tell me I wasn’t in fact sick and that I had no choice but to run a PR.

Thank you Coach Orchard for your mad driving skills and your stories about every former athlete that ever ran ever that make us laugh and/or inspire us.

Thanks Leyna, our beloved and very busy athletic trainer, for the exorbitant amount of care and attention you give all of us. Even if it means lugging suitcases full of equipment all across the Midwest. Thanks for helping me with my difficult lower legs and always being ready for the “Alexa-post-400-migraine-routine,” and for picking me up off the track/taking my spikes off when lactic acid prevents me from moving. And at Nationals, thanks for not freaking out at 4 a.m. when I was freaking out about my fever and telling me all nonchalantly that I had till 4 p.m. the next day to get better. You are the best. Even when you force feed me that carb “goo” stuff.

Thanks coach Marsh for your enthusiasm and unquenchable passion for this crazy sport. Every time you give a speech, Ethan and I pretty much start tearing up. We’re all so thankful you climbed on board with CUTF this year! Also, tell Laurie thanks for her awesomeness, because she wins the award for Best Encourager/Loudest Cheerer (as does Myla). And thanks for finally teaching me to pole vault...on your iPhone, anyway. As a secondary note, we still have to negotiate the status of your job as my 300 meter pacemaker.

Thanks Coach Scott for being the Great Coach Scott. I can’t imagine running here at Cedarville without you and your redneck jokes and your ‘pop-tartanalogies’ and stories about everything from “Bertha You-Know-who” to Prefontaine. You make us all able to laugh, even in the midst of 300 repeats. But most of all, thanks for believing in us, that we can do great things, for praying with us before races, for getting as excited about track now as you did all those years ago when you were, let’s face it, a stud.

And of course, thank you Coach Bo for all your hard work and your encouragement to make us the best athletes we can be. Thanks for all those work outs where you actually ran the workout with us, for “sneaking” in those extra 3+1’s or 120s, for being patient with us when we were injured or unhealthy or bogged down with school. I know a lot of what you do goes unnoticed, but without it, none of us could compete as well as we do at these Championships. Thanks for your caring heart, your occasional “bad joke Mondays”, and all your motivational speeches that make it clear you expect great things from all of us.

I’m very tempted to just go on about every person on my team and tell you something funny about them or why I think they’re awesome. But this blog is pretty long already. I think you get it: it’s been a great year with CUTF and I have lots to be thankful for. And while I’m getting pretty nostalgic over the fact that this is the last blog ever written about an NAIA championship, I’m happy I get to write it with all these people in mind.

Thanks for reading my blog (if you’ve gotten this far),which is actually the last blog I’ll ever write for Cedarville Track and Field (only a two-year max dealio). It’s been fun trying to relay to you what it’s like to run this crazy sport. I’m (hopefully) off to England in the fall, but when January comes around, I’ll be back with the team, ready to make my last year as a Cedarville track athlete (how am I a senior already? seriously.) as memorable and exciting of a year as this past one.

It’s been pretty grand.

Best,

Alexa .W.
Phil. 4:13


May 23, 2011

Imagine you are standing in an empty dorm parking lot, stark and grey beneath a looming sky of dark clouds. Soft thunder echoes across distant corn fields while rain drops, like tears, fall around your feet as if the cement has begun to sport sporadic black welts. Then, from across the parking lot, you see something bright, something green. No, it is not a freshly picked lime. It is a small, dark-haired girl in a bright green rain jacket, track shorts, and a broken umbrella. This girl is dear Hannah Lamos, and she is sprinting for her life, trying to make it to Printy Lounge, away from some dangerous thugs who you see chasing her with trash cans full of water. And it is probably the most hysterical thing you will see in your life.

If this scene makes little sense to you, reader, it’s probably because you weren’t there to witness the water war that went down Sunday between the guys and girls track team. At the end of it all, we girls knew full well the guys were armed with trash cans of water and were going to attack us on our way to dinner. So Hannah decided to sacrifice herself - taking her rain jacket and umbrella. And while the boys chased her around the parking lot trying to pour these trash cans of water on her head, Hannah proceeded to fight them off with an umbrella, which immediately flipped inside out. Joy and I, safe from the doorway of our unit, were basically collapsed on the floor laughing. My biggest regret is not getting it on video.
Yep, this is May Term with the track team.

Besides destroying each other in water wars (mainly, the girls destroying the boys), we’ve been busy training, getting in the last of our hard workouts for the year. And after a killer workout last week that had me staring down a trash can for about 10 minutes, I have to say I’m looking forward to some time off.

But first, we must conquer that exciting and long anticipated mountain of a challenge that is NAIA Nationals. We’re leaving Tuesday morning for Marion, Indiana where we will be competing until Saturday and as Ethan Blagg’s Facebook status says (everyone reading this should add him as a friend, btw), we’re all getting pretty “pizzumped”. After all, this is the very last NAIA Nationals ever for our track team, as we switch over to NCAA next year.....actually, we’re officially the last Cedarville team to ever compete in the NAIA.

So despite the fun festivities of May Term coming to a close - water wars, epic volleyball games, bike rides (motorcycles and/or pegs), Mulan, and extreme make over home edition at Joy Fagan’s SIFI house - we’re ready to focus and compete with everything we’ve got left. So in the words of a certain, familiar song, sung by a certain, attractive cartoon character that will go unnamed, let’s get down to business.

Until next week!


May 16, 2011

This past weekend we headed down to Louisville, Kentucky for what they call a “last chance” meet. As ominous as this sounds, our lives were not at stake as much as some people were attempting a final go at hitting an NAIA mark. Out of our contingent, Sam LeMaster was the sole person to come away with a B mark in the shot put.

However, there were several valiant attempts that were so close to making it to Nationals. Joy Santos ram a personal best time in the 400, moving down to that elusive 57 second range...beyond that, she went on to run an 800 not even an hour afterwards in a time of 2:28 and I couldn’t think of a better way to for her to have ended her season. Joy actually blew out her ACL last year and had to have major surgery, and yet she’s managed to come back and run both full seasons of indoor and outdoor, which is pretty much unbelievable. It doesn’t always happen that your last race of the season is your best one, so I was so happy for her that she could walk away with that blessing. And bring honor to the family.

This weekend we have no meet, so we’re looking forward to a hard week of training in preparing for NAIA Nationals which are coming up faster than Matt Brooker can grow his beard.

Also thought I’d finish off with a listed recap of May Term thus far (set to be updated at a later date):

New Activities
· Achieving REM stage of sleep (for some of us)
· Debate birth control and also the attractiveness of Rachel McAdams
· Self defense ninja moves
· Yoba (viva orange mandarin with fruit topping)

Annoyances
· Weird beetle things everywhere
· Homework (aka PCA’s)
· People who prefer the number 7 to all other numbers

Food
· Too much pizza
· Mexican fiesta
· Asian
· More Asian

Time Wasters
· Red Box movies
· Naps. Naps. Naps.
· Track pictures on Facebook
· Asking Ethan to shave his mustache

TV Shows/Movies
· Not Gilmore Girls...or Morning Glory
· Blue Valentine
· “Dance movies”
· River Monsters?

Left to Do
· Bouncy ball hoot
· Dance party 2011 or something of the sort
· 5 more practices
· Pop bottle rockets (not the explosive kind, just for clarification)

Alright, that’s all for today folks.

more, more, later later.


May 9, 2011

At the end of our NCCAA meet on Saturday, Coach Bo had our team do something unprecedented (as far as I know) before rushing for the bus. He asked us to climb to the very top of the bleachers, look out over the track, and take a mental picture of the view. While some of us with lactic acid laden legs found climbing a slightly difficult experience, we all managed to finally reach the top and survey the landscape below: bright blue mondo track, soft green Astroturf, sun breaking through the clouds, and Joy Santos humming the Chariots of Fire theme song. A near perfect combination for everything a track runner finds beautiful.

Coach’s idea for us to soak in a final image and memory was very fitting after such a memorable weekend. And save the men’s 4x victory from last year, this NCCAA was the most memorable for me in my three years as a Lady Jacket. The timing of this meet was strange enough, perhaps enough to even distract most of us from putting forth our best efforts. As last week was finals, most of us were coming off late nights spent studying, or at least pretending to study, while consuming 99 cent Arizona’s from Super Rip (Winner’s Village Market). The Thursday we left for Joliet, I literally sprinted back from a two-hour Renaissance Lit exam just to pack and make it to the bus on time. All this to say, things weren’t really looking in our favor for a very focused weekend of competition.

And yet, by the grace of God I’m sure, both men’s and women’s teams gutted out two days of strong performances to prove my completely unbiased opinion that tracksters are perhaps the most resilient kind of human being. While the first night showcased mainly semifinals, our momentum began rolling with some awesome performances by our multi’s...Landon Bundenthal PR’d in 9/10 decathlon events while Carolyn Cann earned a 2nd place in the hep, a mere seven points from the first spot. The men’s 4 x 8 also ran a ridiculously fast relay, hitting an NAIA auto mark and breaking a school record.

But my three highlights of this meet were definitely Hannah, Rachel, and Bethers’ standout performances...Joy and I both had heart attacks cheering for Hannah in the 10 K, who was trying to hit an NAIA mark...since Joy and I are sprinters and clueless about anything over 400 meters, Tabby kept updating us on Hannah’s splits and how close she was to hitting the B mark...we screamed until we were hoarse, but Hannah, after over 24 laps or something absurd like that, finished with the mark and subsequently collapsed in a heap. If you ever want to know what “giving it your all” looks like, just listen to Hannah’s incoherent ramblings from the ground, post-race.

Rachel Wong also had an amazing 1500 and finally seized that annoyingly elusive NAIA auto mark. Even though I was warming up for my own race at the time, I got to watch Rachel’s strong finish for a 4:37 - three seconds under what she needed and way ahead of the competition.

But I think my favorite event, not to sound full of it, had to be our women’s 4 x 4. With so many people gone for summer vacation or finished with track, our numbers were dwindling and we were in need of a fourth runner. Joy and I both were feeling a little hesitant about running in the first place, since we had just come off two hard races earlier and were feeling pretty sore. Enter Beth Jones, freshman jumper, and we had a complete team. Even though Beth did all the relays in high school, her training this year has been focused on jumping, not so much 400 meter speed endurance training. While nervous at first to “jump” in with Joy, Katie, and myself, Beth conquered her fears and ran for our third leg.....Beth’s stepping up as our fourth runner gave me, at least, a little bit of the extra motivation I was lacking in my fatigued, sore state. Not only did this long jumper maintain our spot in second, but ran an excellent split to push us to an overall second-place victory. The only downside for Beth in all this is my sinking feeling that she may soon be joining the coveted ranks of the long sprinter group next year.

After the men were declared team champions and the women third overall, we ascended those bleachers and tried to let the rush of the last few days sink in a little. So many ups and downs, so many great performances, and so many great conversations at dinner (ranging from the Country’s British accent to the serious politics of the Great Canadian Seal Hunt).

One blog will never be enough to cover it. I’ve decided life in general is just too unfairly anti-climactic. Finals, graduations, 5 K’s, 4 x 4's, first place finishes, personal bests, all happen and then you move on, or just get on a Buckeye bus and ride back to Cedarville in the dark. So that’s why I think that sometimes it’s kind of healthy to just let yourself be slightly over dramatic, hum some Chariots of Fire music, climb to the top bench of the bleachers, and after taking a survey of your conquered land, think to yourself, “Hey, that was pretty cool.”


May 2, 2011

So anybody hear about the Canadian election yesterday? Stephen Harper’s got himself a majority government. And with the NDP’s in opposition, I’m pretty sure the “Alexa is a socialist” comments of certain team members (who will not be named) are just going to increase. But I guess that’s only if anyone actually paid attention. I mean, if most of my American friends couldn’t tell me who the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were after last week (near treason in the motherland), I doubt anyone is paying attention to the election going on in “America’s hat” (to quote someone else who will remain nameless).

But hey, I have a blog that some people read from time to time, so why not mention it. It’s good to be informed about your neighbors, eh?

Actually, I really just needed some way to start this blog, since it’s finals week and my brain is running on the fumes of fumes and I’m having trouble remembering all the exciting things that took place at the meet on the weekend. I do remember it was a beautiful day, for once (have we ever had this much rain in April? like seriously).

I remember our 4 x 100 PR’d and Rachel Wong won her 1,500 meters and MeghanTerrell qualified for Nats in the Steeplechase. And I remember feeling a little sad, realizing that we were missing some members of the team, since the season is winding down. I already miss Mama Sarah. And good ol’ Marcus, my fellow non-Gentile friend. But, sadly, the season, for most people not going to Nats or NCCAA’s, is nearly over.

The end of track really is a strange thing; extremely anticlimactic and a general fading out. People just kind of disappear. And are never seen again. Not really, but that’s just kind of what it feels like.

Anyway, despite the whole “fading out”, the team as a whole has one more big meet this weekend all the way in Chicago! It’s NCCAA’s, and even if we’ll miss some of our seniors attending graduation instead or others who will be on their way home early, it’s going to be a great weekend, I have a feeling. Especially for all those close to hitting NAIA marks (aka Beth, Katie, Joy, Rachel)...because I know they WILL be hitting those standards.

And then it’s on to the fun festivities of May Term...hopefully carrying on the traditions of pineapple bacon, bouncy ball hoot, and maybe a reintroduction of exploding pop bottle rockets. Which makes me think of Team Rocket. Which makes me feel sad and nostalgic.

Should probably go keep studying so I don’t cry or something.

Ok, that's all for now.

Until next week.


April 25, 2011

So, due to Easter festivities and such, there was no track meet this past weekend. Sad day.

And yet the track team still managed to have a fairly eventful week. It began with Marcus and Jordan (but mostly Marcus) waging a pirate attack on our Tuesday practice after Coach handed out some AMC red bandana souvenir things. After donning the bandanas, these mature senior leaders of our team proceeded to hijack the poor athletic trainers in their Gator and then attack our little sprinter group huddled in the rain. Thankfully, none of us had to walk any planks, but Marcus did force me to lead the warm-up (which I think was his ploy all along).

But the biggest adventure of the week had to be heading over to a nearby country club for our annual track banquet on Wednesday night. It’s the first time that I’ve ever been to a track banquet that wasn’t upstairs in one of the classrooms and I think everyone was pretty excited for the change of pace. But, since the mini bus was swiped from our team, we had to all car pool over in a big convoy of cars, looking like some ancient caravan about to raid old people eating pancakes at Clifton Mill. We didn’t do that, but we did get slightly lost and almost drowned.

After turning down a one-lane back road riddled with potholes, our caravan had to stop because the road was completely washed out. And while Coach Scott in our car was all for plowing straight ahead no matter how deep the water, we decided not everyone would be able to handle such a feat. Mama Sarah did look pretty scared.

Somehow, we managed to turn around ten or so vehicles on a tiny back road and so avoid certain death. And eventually, we made it to the country club and enjoyed yummy food, endless cups of coffee, and watching Coach Jimmy fall out of his chair at Coach Scott’s jokes. As well as Hoffman spilling his drink all over his pants. But, that’s not really as mentionable.

But it was a really fun night, the kind of night Coach likes to tell us we’ll remember when we look back on our Cedarville track life years from now. Hanging out and watching everyone get awards and saying bye to our seniors (Sarah, Marcus, Jordan, TJ, Paul, Chris...hope I didn’t forget anyone) was really special.

I was also reminded that although every year is different, that “track bond” with everyone on the team always remains strong. I guess I’m also just really thankful for the times we can have these silly small adventures on the team in the midst of all our busy and grueling training, and remember why sports are fun; especially when Coach Scott is driving you toward a lake that is supposed to be a road.

So to all those seniors, we will miss you! You guys are our heroes. Thanks for being awesome and gutting out these four years! And Marcus, thanks for the new razor.

This weekend, we have another invitational meet in Miami as we prepare for NCCAA’s coming up the following week and that's the dish for this week. And now I must go do my real homework.

'Til next week.


April 18, 2011

After this weekend’s successful American Mideast Conference meet, our team was met with the existential question of: what could possibly top a conference meet comprised of hard fought performances in the rainy throes of windy Cedarville and a men’s championship title and records smashed and Joy Santos and Hannah Lamos exuberant cheering (sometimes in other languages...)? The answer appeared in the post-track meet drizzle in the middle of eight teams chanting “Cedarville!”: Coach Scott’s epic dance off.

I don’t say epic to be trite; I truly mean it. It was the first time we’d ever had a 360 challenge after an AMC meet and, though not the first time seeing Coach Scott be spastic, the first time to cheer on our dear Coach repping us in a very Cedarville-appropriate (so I don’t get censured, you know) dance-off. And since it hit Facebook, well, it’s pretty much an historic moment now and definitely one of the great memories we’re walking away with from the meet.

But there’s a lot more for the team to walk away with in light of accomplishments and great memories. The week prior to the Championships, our coaches really tried to pump us up, telling us to do our best and aim to win so we could walk away, whatever the outcome, knowing that we had had a great meet. And overall, this was a great meet for a lot of people.
Despite the torrential downpours and hurricane-like moments that threatened to blow little Rachel Herrera’s and Neola’s right off the track, great results kept coming in that continually motivated the team. It began Friday night, watching the 4 x 800 guys and girls dominate (guys placed 1st, girls placed 2nd) and the various people make finals in the 100 meter hurdles and 200 meters as well as the crazy people doing the 10 K in the pouring rain. And, let’s face it, I’m pretty sure the sheer determination emanating from Ethan Blagg’s chiseled, strained jaw in the 4 x 800 relay was enough to get everyone inspired to achieve greatness. So we were all pretty pumped up on Saturday, and when people started winning, like Anna Schmid in the 400 meter hurdles and Rachel Wong killing it in the 1,500 meters, it only bolstered the momentum we were already feeling. I think my only regret from this meet is missing out on my annual 100 meter run-off with Lukas Clore.

Some people even managed some personal bests, like Joy “Speedy 2” Santos in the 200 meters running a lifetime PR and Bethie in the long jump, I believe. While not everyone achieved personal bests, others managed to earn us a lot of points and place, like Katie and Michelle joining Anna in the top eight for the 400 meter hurdles and all 800 meter girls like Rachel, Neola, and Jess. And I can’t leave out Susie and Krista taking up the race walk to get us points, even in the pouring rain, and Rachel Herrera trying high jump for the first time in college. I really wish I could mention everybody, but that would probably get a little laborious to read. But basically, the most important thing you need to know is that all the efforts of our ladies earned us a second place spot and free ice cream sandwiches (although those were for everybody, now that I think about it).

Anyway, I’m pretty sure we’ve all come away from Saturday’s championship meet feeling like it was a great one. I mean, some of us even got to see B-Tress, who made a small, cameo appearance (sans Quincy, unfortunately). But dance-off and all, this was really one of the best team efforts I’ve been a part of at Cedarville, everyone cheering each other on and performing with great focus. It made me remember that track can be fun.

So to everyone who laced up their spikes and race walking shoes this weekend, thanks for being seriously great. Keep looking forward to finishing out the season strong!

Until next week, this is Seabiscuit, signing out.

P.S. Dear Mikey and Sammy, the Seabiscuit comment is for you...but Mikey is still in trouble for all horse-related comments.


April 11, 2011

I know the majority of my blog posts lately have been somewhat weather-related, but if I don’t mention something about Saturday’s weather, I’d definitely be committing an injustice against the goodly peoples of our track team. I’ve been running track since high school and I’ve run in meets with snow and heat waves and rain and fun things like tornado warnings. But Saturday was the first meet I’ve been to that has featured a nearly 3 ½ hour thunderstorm delay.

When we arrived at the track, it was just a little foggy and Joy, Blagg, Davies, Klinger and I headed over to chill in the field house. When Joy and I walked outside an hour later, we were met with a violent downpour and a completely abandoned track. While all civilization seemed to have disappeared, we eventually found our team crowded on the bus watching Tangled, a perfectly adequate thunderstorm-delay movie. What ensued was delay, delay, delay, and some interspersed attempts from Joy to enlist people, like Coach Marsh, to play Zoomi Zoomi. Finally, at 3:15 p.m., we resumed the meet, which meant trying to cram seven hours worth of track into three hours....which, well, didn’t happen. The goal soon became trying to get as many events done as possible before dark. This meant a little bit of adjustment on our part: steeplechasers basically went from the bus to the track and ran, hurdlers had to suddenly wait for hours to run finals, and our 4 x 100 group had about 12 minutes to get warm.

While delays like that can really drain you and schedule adjustments can make things difficult, our team had a really great meet. Joy had a PR in the 400, finally breaking that 59 second barrier....Beth and Sarah achieved seasonal bests in their events, which they will better this weekend at AMC’s (I just know it)...Hannah and Tabby had PR’s in their looonnnggg distance races as well. And I was pretty excited about our little 4 x 100 group (me, Joy, Katie, Bethers) since we pulled off all our exchanges, even with only one short practice, no warm up hand-offs, and using broken wet twigs as replacement for marking tape. I know there was a lot of good stuff on the guy’s side too, which I’m sure Mr. Molstre will mention. But I will also mention that on Sunday Josh Wiseman competed in a ridiculously long 20 K race walk and qualified for the Olympic Trials, which is pretty legit, I think.

So despite the strange start to Saturday’s meet, our team managed to stick it out and compete against some great competition...this is only going to make us more ready for this weekend with AMC’s coming up. It’s always a goal to go into this conference meet trying to win the team championship...people usually step it up a little bit, try more events to get more points. I’m pretty excited and I’m feeling like everyone else is too. Since we’re at home, we’re gonna need everyone to come cheer us on, because we want to go for broke and leave the track on Saturday thinking not so much about how fast we can shower before JS, but about what a great meet we are walking away from. And that’s the real thing, this year, there’s been a lot of good meets, and some that have been just OK...but we want this weekend to be great, which means all of us doing our best. If we can compete through refrigerator-cold wind and temperatures, torrential downpours and four- hour thunderstorm delays, I’m sure we are more than ready to crack a great one this weekend.


April 4, 2011

So I’m sitting in the library abandoning my Renaissance Lit homework in attempts to get this blog written before my 2:00 class. And for awhile I’ve just been kind of staring at the results page from the Cincinnati meet on the weekend wondering what I should write about. I guess I could go on the normal diatribe about the weather - warmer than last week (hallelujah), partially sunny, some rain, random gusts of wind, etc. Or I could skip my usual format and give you the highlights at the beginning of the blog. Like how Carolyn Cann got an NAIA minimum mark in the hep after a grueling two days of events (the heptathlon is an exhausting conglomeration of seven events, in case you were wondering). Or Joy Santos’ season PR in the 200 meters, Katie’s eighth-place finish in the 400 meter hurdles, or Beth and Rachel, our jumpers, making finals in the triple. And, how could I leave out, Coach Marsh donning his bright orange spandex uniform to compete in the decathlon. And while I could write a soapbox inspirational speech... I think I am going to save for next week...so I think I will just ramble about something I’ve been thinking about today.

I’m only thinking about this because I’ve had four friends ask me this morning, “Did you have a meet this weekend?” followed by a “How was it?”, “How did you do?” And I’ve found that I often have great difficulty answering these questions. Number 1, because I condescendingly want to say, “Of course we had a meet. We have a meet every weekend.” And Number 2, because the various updates I give (ex. “Great, I PR’d in the X”, or “I hit an Auto mark in Y” or “Good, but I did like a million events so I’m tired” or “Not so good. Hopefully better next week”) are all met with an equal, “Oh, that’s good!” response. And the thing is, I think I get frustrated with that response because I want so badly for non-track people to understand all that goes into a weekend spent at a track. Often I just revert to the simplest, shortest answers possible to ward off an onslaught of slighted feelings.

So before I start to sound all “complainy”, I mean to say that I’m realizing my friends really are interested in what goes on at these strange “track meet things” that absorb my weekends. Like today at lunch, when I answered one of my friend’s typical questions with the usual, “It went well,” she berated me for my cryptic answers saying, “Alexa, I want to know how you really did!” Considering this certain friend was a music major and former ballerina, I was surprised she would say that. And that’s when I realized that my friends want to know about track, not because its “track”, but because it’s something I’m invested in, even if they can’t possibly understand what it’s like. Track is kind of the “mysterious sport” at Cedarville; I’ve said that before. Basketball gets the big lights, and we’re a bit under the radar. We joke at practice sometimes about how strange it must look to watch a track practice going on, like “What are those people doing? They keep running and then stopping and then passing out then getting up and then running and then stopping and then passing out...etc. etc.” So I think that when most people ask me about the meet, I should probably just tell it to them like I do here in this blog, because maybe they’d really like to know. Like my friend at lunch today.

If you’re not sure what exactly I’m getting at here, I admit that I’m not exactly sure what my point is either. Only that this is on my mind and I wonder if any other “trackies” think this too: just that it’s sometimes anti-climactic and hard to share your experiences with non-track people after a long weekend competing. I guess I am just trying to remember that people really are interested and do want to understand what it is we do everyday. And it’s not their fault if they think that getting an NAIA auto mark has the same significance of “We stopped at Chipotle on the way back”.

Maybe I’m just reminding myself too that it’s ok to talk about your accomplishments, about the things you invest so much time in, and that people want to know what you’re passionate about. Because while most people may not understand what it feels like to “hit the wall” at the end of a 400, they at least can understand that you are excited about telling them.
So yeah.... nothing too profound this week. But just letting you in on some thoughts that go on in the mind of a track athlete when she should be doing homework.

Things to look forward to: Miami this week (the Ohio one) and then AMC’s coming up after that.

Peace ‘n love to all, and to all, a good night.


March 28, 2011

The Cedarville athletic website describes our Saturday home meet as “staged in temperatures that never reached 40 degrees with wind chills in the upper 20's.” If that statement doesn’t resonate with you, let me just tell you: it was cold. I’ve been running track for about eight years, and I have to say that Saturday’s meet met us with the coldest weather in which I’ve ever competed. It was Antarctica out there...complete with different pockets of our cold Cedarville team huddling together like we had been cast in a human remake of March of the Penguins. So if you decided to stay in instead of coming to cheer for us, you should feel ashamed, but I understand. You would’ve had to unbury your parka.

Honestly, weather-wise, I’ve seen worse at meets—thankfully it was sunny most of the day and no snow or rain. But my little sprinter self could not get over that cold. But, the bright side to enduring such frigid conditions has got to be the elevated emotional high of feeling like the ultimate track gladiator after you finish competing. You pretty much feel like you can do anything, like swim the English Channel in the middle of January or something. Another bright side is that you get to conduct fun experiments with the team tent torch heater, like seeing how long it takes to toast a bagel or for Jordan Davies’ Under Armour gloves to melt. Not to mention distracting yourself in trying to warm up poor shivering Nike (TJ’s new puppy and the only adorable Daschund I know).

But that’s outdoor track for you; the ultimate gladiator sport. You can’t predict what you’re going to get, but you’ve got to just grit your teeth and do it anyway. Even in Antarctica. But despite the temperatures and evil backstretch wind tunnels, our team did its best to push through and compete with the best that we could, like always. Beth Jones even managed to pull off a season PR in the triple jump with a 10.86 meter jump. Other highlights included Rachel Wong winning the 1500 meters and Katie winning the 400 meter hurdles. And here I have to give a huge shout out to those long distance people, like Grace Campbell and Hannah Lamos, and our steeple chasers who had to run multiple laps wearing nothing but spandex and Under Armour. You guys are awesome.

So with that tough meet under our belts, here’s to the rest of outdoor season, praying that it will only get warmer from here on out! (if that’s even possible in Ohio)


March 21, 2011

Our first week of outdoor began with some hardcore Parkour. If you don’t know what Parkour is, I’m slightly shocked at you, but will also tell you just to go look it up on You Tube for a visual demonstration. Parkour was a direct result from our annual moving day, where we move all our indoor equipment to the outdoor track...this year, this meant the sprinters got to haul all the huge high jump/pole vault mats out of hiding in the back crawlspace of the indoor track. And when you have myriads of squishy, bouncy, stackable mats and a rambunctious group of track girls, Parkour will obviously ensue. I’d recommend it for a good romp any day, especially for the thrill of accomplishing Joy Santos’ signature move of the front-back flip. But in case you’re worrying, no track athletes were injured in the process (who falls off high jump mats anyway?).

Anyway, moving day was quite a success, mostly thanks to the Amazon-strong arms of the Sprinter girls...who, by the way, can, (ahem Coach Marsh) prove themselves fully capable of lifting pole vault mats without outside assistance from throwers. Or boys.

The highlight of this week though has to be the beautiful weather that met us for our first outdoor meet. When I found out our first meet this year wouldn’t be in sunny Georgia, I was certain we’d be running through ice sheets and snowdrifts for our first one. But Saturday in Cincinnati met us with sunshine and even a little bit of warmth (as evidenced by Bundy’s sunburned face). I know I was loving the sun and being outside on a track with bigger curves and fresh air. I think one of my favorite feelings is running the curve in the first 200 meter of outdoor after indoor season; you don’t have to worry about slowing down for fear of flying off the track and banging into a wall. It’s great.

We had some pretty solid results, considering this was the first meet of the season and the first post-Spring Break meet (as we have some people still recovering from changing nationalities after too much Florida sunbathing). Neola Putnam was runner-up in the 1500 meters as was Beth Jones in the triple jump. Beth also ran her first college race ever, joining myself, Carolyn, and Joy in the 200 meters. Katie Lanphier also turned out a good first run in the 400 meter hurdles, coming in fourth while Hannah Lamos finished sixth in the 5000 meters (I still can’t imagine running that many laps of a track). It was also really fun to watch Rachel Wong running right next to Olympic 400 meter runner Mary Wineburg in the 800 meters.

So good first week overall. And this Saturday is our Cedarville home meet....so you better come out and yell really loud for us.

Peace.

P.S. Continue to keep Japan and the nuclear meltdown situation in your thoughts and prayers.


March 14, 2011

Fresh off spring break, there isn’t too much exciting news to report this week. I suppose it’s fairly relevant to mention, however, that this week marks the beginning of the outdoor season. And if you’re reading this entry thinking, “isn’t it still too cold to be running outside?” I will tell you, yes. It is. But, at least there is no snow this year. If there are any of you distance runners reading this right now, you’re probably thinking, “Um, it’s called long spandex and headbands, you sprinter. We’ve been running outside all year.” And to you, I say, yes, I completely admit that I am a baby when it comes to the cold...evidenced by the fact that I have only sat down in an ice bath twice in my entire track career. (Again, I hear the distance runners scoffing.)

Anyway, despite the chilly day outside, I am really looking forward to this outdoor season. We have a lot of people coming back from some injuries in the indoor season and others who were very close to making indoor NAIA marks that can now start shooting for outdoor standards. I truly think it shall be some “rrrromping good times”, as Miss Carolyn would say.

Our season opens with the Cincinnati Open this Saturday, March 19th. And since Cincinnati is really not that far away...you should all bring your parkas and come cheer.

Also, before I peace out to class...just something that’s been on all our hearts recently...but continue holding up Japan in your thoughts and prayers. And keep looking out for ways we can help out over here. I’m sure there will be an influx of organizations asking for donations and such in the next few weeks.

Looking forward to updating you on this outdoor season.


March 7. 2011

It’s been a week since NAIA indoor nationals, and I’m really having a hard time believing my third year at these championships has already come and gone. Every national meet has its own characteristics and quirks, lessons learned. For instance, freshman year was all about crossword puzzles and water geysers. Last year, spelunking and Don’t Stop Believing. And this year, I’d like to think of as the year we got the best of both worlds.

You see, historically, NAIA's fall on the same week as Cedarville’s inconveniently timed, very random spring break. Which basically means the nationals' team gets a wonderfully memorable, but not so restful, spring break. However, this year, while nationals was March 3-5, taking place over last weekend, Cedarville’s Spring Break was this week. This date change is very significant for me; I love the sun and the ocean and beaches and awkward looking pelicans that dive head-first into the ocean....and all of these I am looking at right now as I write this blog about nationals from my Spring Break vacation spot of Myrtle Beach.

So basically, last week was a great trip of intense competition and fun with teammates and this week has been a great trip of relaxation (i.e. hot tubs, ice cream, runs on the beach, and no alarm clock mornings). Like I said, the best of both worlds.

With all this break (and avoidance of text books), I’ve had a lot of time to think about last week at nationals, what I learned and how this experience differed from other NAIA's I’ve attended. First of all, instead of heading south to the hills of Tennessee, our three Cedarville vans of our 16 athletes headed to Geneva, Ohio to the GaReat athletic complex...which is a pretty amazing facility, despite its glorified Costco-esque appearance. And it was in this complex where we spent the majority of our next few days, watching Brian Clay get inducted in the NAIA Hall of Fame, running circles around the 300 meter track, and unsuccessfully trying to out-cheer Hannah Lamos.

As a whole, there were a fair bit of ups and downs for the team at this nationals. One highlight was (Vladimir) Hoffman snagging a 6th-place spot in the hurdles to be an All-American this year—which I am attributing to his furry Russian hat intimidation tactics. Our other All-American efforts came from the hard fought efforts of Josh and Joel in the racewalk....which is truly an amazing event, considering they can walk a mile faster than I could ever run it.

My favorite moment, however, was watching our girls DMR relay team Thursday night. Although they missed finals by a few places, each girl (Neola, Joy, Katie, and Rachel) hit the exact time they were trying to hit. For those of you who do not realize how amazing that is, let me just tell you, it’s very rare that every member of a relay team will have their best possible race. There are so many variables: injuries, bad handoffs, just a bad day...and yet each of these girls hit the marks they needed to hit on their splits. And in doing so, they decimated the former school record by over ten seconds. Cheering for those girls and seeing them run the absolute best they could’ve run was definitely my highlight for this NAIA meet.

For myself, this wasn’t the best nationals for me in terms of final results. I had some good moments, but unlike our DMR, I didn’t come away from the meet having accomplished my goals. But like I said before, each nationals has its own sets of lessons learned and as I’ve had time to think about it all over this Spring Break, I feel like I may’ve taken more lessons away from this meet than any other.

For instance, learning that it really is true—life does go on if you have a bad race. Track, in and of itself, is actually very insignificant. I’m also realizing more and more the very human aspects of sport, of track, that make it more than just a 56 second race. At these meets, we have chances to interact with other teams and even our own teammates on a whole different level, simply because of the intensity of the meet. And I have to say, I always come away feeling a little closer to people I maybe didn’t interact with as much before nationals. This reminds me of something Coach Bolender addressed in our meeting the first night we got to Geneva. He mentioned in our meeting the importance of building relationships and how without these relationships, there really is no point to our sport, or anything we do in life. And I think walking away without the thing I had been hoping for—an All-American spot—reminded me of what I did walk away with, some pretty fun memories and good times with teammates and friends.

And I don’t mean this as a cop out response to not meeting my goals. Admittedly, I was pretty disappointed. But despite my disappointment, I didn’t have any regrets because I knew I had done my very best that day. And even though my best wasn’t good enough, I could be OK with that because there is so much more to this sport than just one not-so-great race. There are some awesome people I get to cheer for and share in excitement with for this small snippet of my life and that’s a pretty good reward in and of itself.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on nationals, which, again, I truly can’t believe are over. While I could write a few more volumes on restaurant escapades, addicting rag doll games, and little Myla Marsh entertaining us with her “I just sucked on a lemon” face, I think I shall return to enjoying this sunny day here in the beaches of Myrtle. I’m hoping I’ll be able to bank all this rest as reserve energy to pump myself up for this last stretch of the 2011 track season...because now with indoor finished...outdoor nationals are really just around the corner.


February 28, 2011

So we’re leaving for NAIA’s Wednesday morning, which means I have a Mount Everest high stack of homework getting in the way of writing a highly entertaining blog for you precious readers. Luckily, my great writer friend Ethan Blagg has been waiting for such a moment to show off his skills, as it is time for my annual Guest Blog appearance. Ethan’s blog is actually much more interesting than mine usually are, so I encourage you to read it…ignoring the slight that women are only good for making cookies at Bible study and the comment about the “defunct” Team Rocket....oh and send the fruit snacks to me, instead!

Have a happy week friends. Peacin’ out to NAIA’s….

Alexa

Hello and welcome to this week’s blog of the week, by not Alexa Winik. My name is Ethan Blagg, and I am filling in for Alexa, as she is taking the day to work extra hard on her track practice, instead of putting the effort into writing. Because of my willingness to help, she will run faster than she ever has before. You heard it here first. On a side note, Microsoft Word is trying to tell me that “Alexa” is misspelled. I disagree. (But then, perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Winik spelled her name wrong.)

But on a serious note, she really has been begging me to write a blog for her, and I have never once begged her every week to write one. EVER.

This weekend was an “off” weekend for theCedarville tTrack teams, as last weekend was our National Christian College Championships, and this week is the NAIA Championships. Most the team is gearing up for the outdoor season during our short break between NCCAA’s and our first outdoor meet, but those who are heading to the GaReat Sports Complex in Geneva, Ohio (or Switzerland maybe) for NAIA indoors are trying to reach their peak . It should be a pretty sweet meet to watch, but I will be in Iowa with my family (although I haven’t told them yet. The plan is to show up on my doorstep and give my mom a heart attack. I hope my family doesn’t read this blog. Also, is it wrong to tell my mom I’m going to New York when I’m coming home? Ethics are a fuzzy thing sometimes).

Now, since there was no meet this weekend, I am assuming that I can write about anything I want. I will start by letting everyone know that Alex Moore (better known as S’moores - he has actually never been addressed by his birth name) ran the half marathon in Columbus this weekend, qualifying for the NAIA outdoor marathon championship with a time of 1:16:17. Chris Vaughn, Greg Johnson, and myself all spent the weekend at his house, then cheered him on during his race. It was an awesome thing to see! He was not feeling that he would hit the mark after about five miles, but kept pushing himself and ended up hitting the ‘B’ mark! I was inspired, especially since our team had a talk last week about pushing yourself to compete at a level you didn’t think your body and mind could handle. So props to Alex!!!

This is a women’s blog, but I am a male. That has nothing to do with what I am writing, but I felt the need to say that. One of the better known “aspects” of our team, at least among the team, is the“Thrower’s Club”. It consists of all the throwers on the team, as well as one additional, specially chosen individual per year who is invited to eat with the throwers. I am the eldest “honorary thrower”, followed by sophomore Mark Farris, and this year’s inductee – Eddie “Eddie” Bonk. I just realized that there is no nickname for Eddie (that I am aware of). This must be remedied As Soon As Possible. Back to the original subject, if you are a member of the Thrower’s Club, you are a genuine, awesome, cool, sweet, amazing, genuine successful person, and nobody messes with you because you have friends that are big and strong. Several times I have used this to my advantage. Every one of these “several times” has been to cut in line during team meals after meets.

There are two other groups that I can think of on the track team. The first would be the Distance Runner’s Club, which was created so Sam LeMaster (a thrower. Also, the only person Greg Hannay is afraid of. If you are wondering who these people are, look at the roster. They are not skinny distance runners...) could hang out with the distance guys without feeling out of place. The second is “Team Rocket”. In my opinion, team rocket (not capitalized because its not real) is defunct. It was an extremely exclusive clique whose existence was highly debated by alum Michael Beight, because he was never included. I wasn’t ever invited, so I say ix nay on the entire thing.

Ok, this is extremely long, so I will close by saying something about the girl’s team. Ummmmmmmm. Uhhhhhhhh.

Haha just kidding. No matter what I make it sound like, our track team gets along extremely well. It is super fun to be able to have 80 people who all have something in common with you, and to be able to cheer them on and root for them. When you have a bad day, there are ALWAYS several people to cheer you up and encourage you. If you get a chance to come to one of our meets, come talk to us. We are friendly.

Since I have the opportunity to write a guest blog which has over two million weekly readers, I would like to give a shout out and a thank you to all our track coaches. I shant mention them all, but I will specifically mention Coach Michael Marsh. He is new to us this year, and is coaching the multi- and field events, and is pretty much our strength coach. He competed for Cedarville way back in like, I don’t know, a decade ago. Then he went on and competed in the decathlon and was ranked pretty high in the U.S. I’m probably understating what he did, but he is humble and wouldn’t want me to overstate I’m sure. Haha. So basically he is an amazing athlete, and it has been a lot of fun being around him! If you want to get pumped up about something, I would recommend having a conversation with him. Now, I said all of that because it is true and such, but I am really hoping he reads this and I get brownie points.

That wraps up this week’s blog, even though I still have much to say, as always. I cannot understand how I can easily write a blog about running, but a two-page paper fatigues me more than a race. If you want to send fruit snacks (I hope fruit snacks are not considered ergogenic aids or bribery) to me, the address is:

251 N Main St. #2242
Cedarville, OH 45314

After re-reading what I have written, the decision has been made that it is not long enough. A few things that are currently happening are: a women’s Bible study, planning for a men’s Bible study, pre-planning for a track team movie night, pre-planning for asking the women’s Bible study to make cookies for the males. Oh, and I almost forgot – everyone on the team always roots for the Indianapolis Colts, Iowa Hawkeyes, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Cubs, and Kimbo Slice. One thing that needs to be addressed is fandom of “Glee” and Justin Bieber. Smitty Smith (a sprinter) got me to watch an episode of Glee with him last week. I cannot say that I hated it, because if the screen is moving the show entertains me, and if the screen is not moving, I am apt to absolutely love the show. However, I would have to turn in my man card if I said I liked it, so I will not do so. And Justin Bieber, whatever. If you want some good entertainment, watch some old Cary Grant films, or listen to Andy Williams Christmas music. Do a crossword puzzle, play Scrabble, Boggle, Monopoly, Risk. These are the things that create a holistic person.

I wish you all a merry week, and etc.

Ethan


February 21, 2011

If I’m going to be honest, I think one of the highlights of this past weekend was story time with Ethan Blagg on the bus ride home. I mean, I had no idea Blaggatha and Country could imbue themselves with such convincing Scottish accents.

But before I digress, I should probably start talking about NCCAA’s. Last Saturday marked my first NCCAA Championship experienced away from our home turf. For the first time in awhile (not sure exactly how long), NCCAA’s did not take place at Cedarville but at the red mondo track of Indiana Wesleyan (cue Sammy Starr’s “I-WUuuu”singing from yesteryear). It felt strange at a new place, not gonna lie, but seeing some familiar faces from other teams let the reality of the competition sink in a little once we got there. For some reason, NCC’s felt a little more low-key this year, which might just be the result of a shorter indoor season than usual. Carolyn Cann and I decided the lack of huge, small-whale sized balloons at this NCC may have contributed to the strangeness as well, but we don’t expect everyone to agree. Anyway, it certainly felt different, but we managed to get the adrenaline flowing and pull out some solid performances. And of course, the promise of a $17 limit at Outback post-meet meal provided a decent amount of motivation.

NCC’s can be an interesting meet, since we try to include as many people in relays as possible. For instance, Jamie I-Love-Gummies Atkins found herself gutting out a 1200 meters in the DMR relay (400 more meters than usual for her) and Laura Kirby, one of our pole vaulters, joined in that relay for the 400 meter leg. I didn’t have a chance to run a relay this year with a full plate of all three sprint races, but I always love watching the relays at this meet. There’s more on the line for most teams gunning for the championship, and even if you’re not gunning for it, that 4 x 400 is always exciting to cheer to finish off the day. Our women’s 4x4 team (Joy, Rachel H, Carolyn, and Katie) ran great, despite a very long day of events, and just missed the podium by a tenth of a second. Some other highlights included Beth Jones jumping 5.30 meters which placed her seventh in the long and Rachel Wong running to an All-American second-place spot in the mile.

And with NCCAA’s under our belt, some of us can begin to look forward to our next championship meet in Geneva, Ohio....NAIA’s!

And NAIA’s are always a party.

Peace out till then.

P.S. - To all my American friends ignorant of this merry Canadian tradition...HAPPY FAMILY DAY!


February 14, 2011

I had an interesting moment Friday night where I found myself trying to describe an indoor track meet to my boyfriend’s parents. Neither of them had been to a track meet before, so I experienced a strange and necessary desire to warn them what they were in for upon entering the Doden Field House for our first meet home meet.

"Organized chaos," I told them, which seemed the most appropriate summary of every home meet at Cedarville I’ve experienced thus far. And if Coach Bo wasn’t so meticulous in his planning, "chaos" might’ve simply sufficed.

So on that note, I’ve compiled a list of some very crucial indoor track lessons Ihave learned from the sardine-can conditions of chaotic indoor meets:

1. Look both ways when crossing, and then both ways again. And then make a run for it. Just like riding your bike across a 16-lane intersection in Beijing.

2. Don’t try to cut across the track during a 200 or 4 x 200, especially near the Yellow Jackets wall where there is barely anyroom for a leap to safety from lane 6. This lack of a safety buffer might result in your death.

3. Definitely do not try to anger certain gatekeepers; they might beat you down. Literally.

4. If a buzzer sounds while you are running, even if it's 100 meters in to your race, just stop. And walk it out.

5. The weight throw area really is big enough and safe; you don’t have to duck everytime someone throws.

6. Don’t forget to decelerate in the 60 meters, lest you end up flying into a stranger’s lap in the bleachers while wrapped in chickenwire.

Anyway, our home meet is always a fun one, even if it’s sometimes hard to get the adrenaline pumping on a track you train on every day. However, with Nationals looming around the corner in just a few short weeks, and NCC’s at the end of this week, several people pulled off some exciting results.

Our 4 x 200, with myself, Joy, Anna, and Rachel, placed second with a time that was apparently two tenths off the school record. To name a few more, Beth Jones won both of her events in the triple and long jumps, Carolyn Cann won the 600 meters Sarah Hannay won herself a school record in her event.

Also, if you’re reading this to have a recap on results because you weren’t at the meet, shame on you for not coming to cheer for us. And to all of those who did come to cheer (shout out to the Elm street boys and friends....you know who you are), thanks for making us feel like a million bucks at our first home meet of the year.

And so begins a bit of a lighter week, as we start gearing up for an awesome meet at NCCAA’s next weekend.

P.S. Annnnnddd.....For anyone who mistakenly read Jordan’s blog that was initially posted on mine....no, I’m actually not engaged.

February 7, 2011

Tonight, as I write this blog, every Facebook status I see has something to do with a certain football game, with a Packers’ victory and a descent from a cloud, a la Usher.

Hurrah. Super Bowl Day. America’s second biggest religious holiday.

After the game, in the midst of mass-dumped confetti, one of the interviewers asked Greg Jennings what was going through his mind with the weight of Super Bowl “Glorydom” thrust upon his shoulder pads. His first response: “I give all the glory to God.”

This sounded nice. Nice and refreshing to our little Christian-athlete ears.

But it reminded me of a dinner conversation I had the other night with two of my lovely teammates, Carolyn Cann and Rachel Herrera. We were talking about the upcoming meet on Friday, how we were nervous, our fears, anxieties:“I’ve been injured for a week, I’m scared to see how behind I am”; “My shins are just not cool right now” “Nationals is coming up so fast” “Why can’t I justdo all my events perfectly the way I want?”

Somehow, through all our voiced concerns, the question surfaced in our conversation, “How do we really compete for God?”

It sounds a bit of a Sunday School question, but playing a varsity sport at a Christian university demands we figure this question out....mostly because it’s crammed down our throats all the time - that we should “compete for God” - but we don’t actually talk very much about what that really means, what it looks like.

And I’m not writing this blog entry to give some kind of profound answer no one’s ever heard before or a Top 10 list of practical tips to apply to Christian track athletes who want to compete for God. I’m still figuring this one out myself.

But during that dinner, we kept saying we wanted more of us athletes to start talking about this, what it really means at the heart, and I figure this kind of a blog is a platform enough to start talking about it at least.

And like I said, I don’t have the answers....only a few thoughts.

First, if you are an athlete, your athletic abilities are a gift from God, not because you deserve it but because He gifted it to you. That means you don’t sit around, and as Coach Bolender would say “Eat Twinkies all day” - that means you thank Him for giving you that gift. You do that by training and competing the best you can on any given day - by taking some action. I love how in Jesus’ parable of the talents (I admit, an overused one for this kind of topic) the master doesn’t commend the “good steward” for being perfect or being the best; he praises him for taking action with the little money given to him. For the perfectionists and anxiety-riddled people of this world - namely ME - this is great news! This means that competing for God doesn’t mean getting a PR every time I run, it doesn’t mean I win every race. It means I lace up my spikes, step on the track, and get in my blocks with the thought in my head that I’m going to do the very best that I can. I really think that all He asks of us.

For me, the signaler is fear. When I am afraid to step in my blocks, when I am afraid to run because I might fail or fall short of a goal, that’s when I know I am competing for myself and not for God. The sad thing is, I will fail myself almost every time if that’s my attitude. And when I do succeed, it feels the same as if I failed - maybe a little more palatable but still hollow. But when I can step on the track without fear and with the attitude that I am going to do the very best I can on that given day with the given circumstances, I am taking action and thus thanking God for the gift He gave me.

So basically, this is how I am learning to see it at this point of my running career: competing for God - or doing anything for God - means performing your best without fear. And as the first to admit, this is easier said than done when you’re staring down your lane eyeing your competition thinking of 16 possible ways you could get yourself out of running that race.

So those are just my thoughts this Sunday night, but I would love to see this question hashed out more together with our team...I think it’s an important question to answer for anyone who calls themselves an athlete and a Christian. And now it’s time to get off my soap box and get to bed.

As for the Findlay meet last Friday, there were some highlights and some low lights, as typical of any meet - but a lot of people are doing some great things. Feel free to check out the results on the website for specifics; I’m running out steam here tonight. I will say however that DMR’s are pretty fun (and really long) relays.

Ok that’s all for tonight folks. I’m about to nod off to sleep. Sorry for the lack of statistic update-age.

Week four of the season is coming up with our first home meet to look forward to at the end of the week. So come out and cheer this Friday night! We’ll be expecting you....


January 31, 2011

If you want to really know what the start of a track meet day looks like, keep reading....if not, well, the highlights are at the end....

It’s 4:20 a.m. - 20 minutes till departure. You’re standing inside your dorm lounge, staring out into the frigid January air, ticking off last minute lists in your head before you head out: spikes, singlet, energy bars, water bottle, contact case, lotion, phone, phone charger, extra bobby pins, blanket...eventually this list begins to paralyze you, so with the reassuring thought that all you really need is your singlet and spikes, you struggle to push open the door and head outside.

Shuffling toward the faint hum of the bus in the distance - or walking anywhere at frigid 4 a.m. - proves difficult. You’re balancing a shoes /homework-filled gym bag with a broken strap and a cheetah-print body pillow - your only ticket for getting any possible sleep on this bus ride. Under this Pilgrim’s Progress-esque burden you carry, your feet slip back and forth on the snowy sidewalks. They haven’t been salted yet - at this hour anyway. And (if you’re me) random images of the final scene of Fiddler on the Roof start to float across your half-conscious mind (just long enough to think, “Why am I thinking this?”) as you shuffle to the bus in the Anatevka-like cold. But finally you make it to the entrance of the Callan Athletic Center where two large buses are puffing and humming like they, too, would rather be anywhere else than out in that early morning air.

In the semi-darkness, the fielders are loading the implements: shot puts, weights, and the ever-frustrating pole vault poles. Others are carrying boxes of food to place under the bus, trying to navigate the quandary of how much food should I take with me now, when should I eat breakfast, how long does it take for yogurt to go bad?

Someone is laughing too loud for 4:30 a.m. Someone is making a comment about how early 4:30 a.m. feels. Someone else is taking a picture of Matt Brooker’s 4:30 a.m. face. Coach Bolender is skipping around, grabbing last minute items and chatting with other coaches like it’s 12 in the afternoon. After clumsily shoving your gym bag onto the mass heap of bags under the bus, and probably hitting your head on the fold-out door, you try to find a seat on said bus. A lot of, “Oh sorry, you first, no you’re fine, is this seat taken?” ensues but finally you find a seat and plunk yourself down. You comment on your teammate Carolyn’s awesome furry hat, tell your other teammate Lukas to not be so grumpy and soon the lights are out and you are driving out of Cedarville. It takes you all the way to Springfield to adjust your seat, your neck position, your pillow position, your leg position, your foot position, and your foot rest position until you feel adequately comfortable to sleep....everyone is silent, except Coach Bo and Coach Marsh chattering merrily away at the front,...and when you open your eyes next, you are four hours down the road, in a strange forested area with a huge sports complex thinking, “Where am I and how did I get here?”....which is an existential question for another day.

And that was how our morning started on Saturday as we headed to the GaReat Sports Complex (pretentious name, right?) for the Lake Erie Open. It was the earliest I’ve ever left for a track meet, but despite the cruel hour, the team pulled together for a lot of really solid performances. This meet offered some great competition for this early in the season and a beautiful 300-something meter track (which typically means, faster times).

Some highlights on the women’s side - Rachel Wong placed the highest, running a 5:12 in the mile to finish fifth overall. In terms of PR’s, Elisa Cherry had a PR in the mile, breaking six minutes for the first time as well as newcomer to the team Anna Schmid in her 60 meter hurdles. There were many more PR’s and great performances that we discussed together as a team after the meet and after the long day that started so early, there was a lot for our team to be proud of and celebrate with wholesome food at Wendy’s and Arby’s.

Next weekend will probably be another early start for us as we head to Findlay, but hopefully not as early as 4:30 a.m.
But if it is, we’ll still be ok. We’re track athletes. We’re pretty tough.


January 24, 2011

 I’d like to title this blog,

“CAN YOU BELIEVE they are NOT called the Otterbein OTTERS?”.... as quoted by the astonished Eli Husfelt.

(For those looking for some kind of meet summary, not my lengthy diatribe, feel free to jump to the last paragraph.)

Saturday, at the Otterbein Invitational, I talked with Marla Rice. Marla ran track at Cedarville, having graduated in 2009, but we still think she’s pretty famous. Her name still surfaces once and a while at practices even, living on in the relay records posted on the wall and the odious questioning of freshmen who ask us upperclassmen in our warm-up routine, “Why is this stretch called the “Marla Stretch?”” In between quick catching up and jokes about her replacing me in the 4 x 400 meter relay, Marla told me she really missed running with the team. Not a surprising or profound sentiment in the least; I’d say it’s fairly normal for anyone to feel nostalgic when returning to watch something you’ve invested nearly the entirety of your physical and mental state in for four years. But she was sincere. And I began to think about how easy it is to take what we’re doing for granted.

I know in previous blogs I’ve talked about taking for granted the routine of what we do, getting stuck in the daily grind of such a repetitive, long-term sport. But Marla’s comment struck me as something a little different, I think. Maybe it’s because Saturday wasn’t such a great meet for me. I tweaked a muscle at the end of my 55 meter final and ended up scratching two of my events. While watching my race go without me, I thought about how many times I’ve warmed up, ran, and finished races without any injuries or mishaps. Those were all times I should’ve been more thankful that I actually had a chance to run and finish my race that day. Similarly, I should be just as thankful for each day I get to spend time with my teammates, riding buses, singing in ice baths, whatever... because the truth of it is, in two years, I’ll be the one returning to watch an indoor meet saying, “I miss it.”

I don’t want to make this super weighty or anything (I promise not all my blogs will be so didactic), but I’m just being honest with what I’m thinking this Sunday post-first-track-meet night...I need to remind myself of the power of living in the moment right now at the beginning of the season and I think everyone else should too. Every time we step on the track to run, it is transient, but it is truly a gift.

We have a whole season ahead of us, sixteen weekends of bus rides, Subway sandwiches, hot packs, ibuprofen, and running/jumping/throwing our hearts out. While we set our future goals for these sixteen weeks, stick to our long-term game plans, run so many races we forget what we did and where, I think there’s a lot to be said about being thankful for each singular day we can practice and compete together. After all, we will never have our 2011 team back again, just like we can never resurrect the track teams of 2009 or 2010.

I think I can sum all these thoughts up with an old saying (that just popped in my head) of what my dad would always tell me before my high school races:
“Stay present to the moment.”

In such an unpredictable sport that usually sees half of us on the injured list, it’s really all you can do to get the most out of the experience.

And now after that lengthy diatribe, let me do my job and brief you on some exciting things that did happen Saturday. As a first meet, Otterbein was, well, a first meet. Coach tries to impress on us the laid back nature of first meets of the season, not to stress out too much but to pace ourselves, mentally as much as physically. But, that doesn’t mean we should drop our intensity, and for the most part, we didn’t. Our team brought an overall strong showing. As always, I have some honorable mentions for our ladies (since Jordan will probably cover the guys and this is already getting pretty long)....first, I will mention our burgeoning heptathalete Carolyn Cann for her crazy multi-event day (shot put, long jump, hurdles, 4 x400) where she finished strong and was, as always, very nice to all her competitors and officials. Rachel Herrera also had a busy day with a 400, long jump and 4 x 400, which she pulled through despite some painful shin splints and Beth Jones, proving to be quite the star of a freshman, won both her events handily in the long and triple jumps. Lastly, I have to make a shout-out to Miss Joy Santos, for a solid three races in her first meet back after tearing her ACL last year. We’re all happy to have her and her intense love for the 4 x 400 back with us again.

Great job team, one week down and sixteen....well, you know the rest.


January 17, 2011

Well friends, it’s that time of year again. The beginning of Cedarville track and field’s competitive season has crept upon us, and thus, round two for my typically wordy blog installments.

This coming Saturday morning, we will be suiting up in our uniforms for the first time this year and heading to the Otterbein Invitational in Westerville, Ohio. Here, we will hopefully find out exactly where our bodies are after some grueling months of fall training for some and cross country for others.

This mention of fall training reminds me of the peculiar, (and sometimes slightly annoying) ignorance the general public has regarding the sport of track and field. I only mention this in light of some of the funny misnomers that have cropped up in conversations with people when I mention the start of our season. I don’t mean to talk down to anyone, since track is arguably the most “mysterious” sport on the Cedarville campus. So since the purpose of this blog is to let readers know what’s what in Cedarville sports, I thought I’d start with clarifying a few questions I’ve received recently regarding track. For instance:

1. Until March, we will be running indoors, not in the snow. So don’t fret for our frostbitten feet.
2. Just because our meets are starting on Saturday doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting around eating Bill’s Donuts in the off-season. We have trained hard since September, some of us longer than that. And that’s not counting the beastly cross country warriors who have now joined our team after training and competing since the late summer.
3. On that note, track really doesn’t have an official off-season.
4. Our biggest meets of the season are NAIA Indoor and Outdoor Nationals (held at separate times and locations)...if you make the qualifying time standard.
5. Shin splints are a pain, but, unfortunately fairly typical.
6. Canada actually does have a national track team.

So there are some clarifying insights into track, the epically long sport with such a quiet and subtle season commencement. For those reading this who are familiar with track or are on the team, you know exactly what we are in for starting this Saturday! While I am nursing some typical feelings of nervousness at the thought of this weekend, I’m really excited to jump right into this season. With the start of our meets comes the motivation to stick with the training we’ve been doing since the fall and we’re all anxious to nail down our starting point for attaining individual goals.

This year, we have lost some great competitors and friends to graduation...Lydia Wong, Sammy Starr, Mikey Beight, B-Tress, to name a few. But there is hope with the tremendous amount of new freshman blood coming up the ranks (not to sound too vampiric). There’s definitely a lot of potential, which I know sounds clichéd in a track blog....but that’s truly one of the great parts about this sport (which I will often hearken back to in these blogs) - the thrill that every day of practice, every meet, is one step closer to discovering the ultimate threshold of your potential as an athlete.

So to my teammates, in light of the start of the season, I want to end this first blog with giving you a pretty good quote from the great American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson,

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small compared to what lies within us.”

Let’s go, team!

Alexa Winik, a junior English major from Windsor, Ontario, was a 2010 NAIA All-American in both the indoor and outdoor 400 meter dash. She was named the NCCAA Indoor Outstanding Track Performer of the Meet in both 2009 and 2010, is an eight-time NCCAA champion, and holds five school records.