October 27, 2020
We wrapped up our season this past weekend at the G-MAC Championships in Tiffin, Ohio. We arrived at the course on Friday afternoon and were able to run it and get a feel for what it was like. It was mostly flat with a few gradual hills both up and down. Although slightly boring, because it was three loops, it turned out to be a pretty fast course. Most of the team’s biggest concern was the rain, although personally, I was more concerned about the freezing cold weather that was supposed to blow in overnight. However, those worried about the rain had a legitimate reason; we got a downpour on Friday night.
We all wondered how muddy and wet the course would be in the morning. We joked that instead of a lead cart, we would have a lead canoe. Thankfully though, when we arrived at the course on Saturday morning, it wasn’t as bad as we were expecting. The ground was soft but not flooded. The weather, on the other hand, was FREEZING, much to my disappointment.
At 9:15 a.m., we headed for the line, and after a meeting with Coach Bolender, a few strides, and a team prayer, the gun went off at 9:30 a.m. The race didn’t turn out quite as we hoped, but we did our best, and that’s what matters. Despite the disappointment for our team finish, we had several strong individual performances. Several girls ran PR’s or close to their PR. Remington Hobson came in 10th with a time of 22:17, earning All-G-MAC First Team and Naomi Herman came in 17th with a time of 22:36, earning All-G-MAC Second Team. This week the captains picked Sarah Groh as our Team Athlete of the Week for her strong race and 70 second PR.
October 20, 2020
Despite being somewhat unusual, this semester has gone by so fast. It's hard to believe that in just a little over five weeks, it will be over. It seems like just yesterday we were moving into our dorm rooms, wondering if we would all be packing up and heading home in a few weeks. Not to mention the question we all had going through our minds of whether or not we would get a season. Everything was so up in the air then. But here we are ten weeks later after three great races, lots of hard work both on and off the course, and a couple of randomized COVID tests still doing life with each other in the corn fields. God has truly blessed our team this semester, and we are all so thankful that we had the opportunity to race.
Since we didn't have a race for two weekends in a row Coach Bolender let us run a 5K time trial on the track last Wednesday night. It was a blast and a major confidence booster heading into G-MAC. The weather was next to perfect, with the exception of some wind, and we had several great performances. Eight girls ran PR's, and several girls were very close to their PR. Special shout out to Rachel Sweeney for running sub-18 in the 5K for the first time.
This weekend we will be running the G-MAC Championships in Tiffin, Ohio, and we are all super excited to see what we can do. We have a really good and deep team this year, which gives us the chance to win, so that is our goal. This week Coach Bo has been emphasizing running at the right PACE during the first 1000 meters. A race isn't won in the first 1000 meters, but it can head south pretty fast in the first 1000 meters if they are not run at the right pace. The meet in Louisville a few weeks ago was a great example of this. Lee University was winning by nine points at the 2K, but we beat them by 27 points. To help us remember and add a little fun to practice on Monday, Coach Bo even wrote PACE across his forehead. We all got a good laugh out of that one, and I am sure a few of us are secretly hoping it won't wash off before G-MAC.
October 14, 2020
Although we did not race, this past week has been a busy one for most of us. Like most colleges, last week was midterm week at Cedarville, so many late nights and long hours were spent studying and finishing up projects. As much as I hate not racing, off weekends are a nice time to get caught up on sleep and homework. But we did have a little fun, too.
On Saturday morning, we switched it up a bit and did our long run to Clifton Mill, where we had a big breakfast. A breakfast run to Clifton Mill has been a team tradition for a long time, although it is not typically done in October. We usually use it as a way to end camp week just before classes start in August. However, since we were unable to have a camp week this year, and got to campus a little later, we did it on Saturday instead. Everyone had a good time and ate until their bellies were more than happy. Anna Steich even completed the Pancake Challenge, and in record time too, less than 20 minutes! I guess all those miles made her hungry. For those of you who don't know what the Pancake Challenge is, it is a challenge to eat two pancakes that weigh a pound each in one sitting. When someone completes the challenge, they get a third pancake for free! Although most of the time, they are too full to even consider digging into the third one until the next day. It is quite the task, and only a handful of girls on the team have completed it.
Since we don't have many chances to race this season and are in the middle of a two-week gap, tonight (Wednesday, Oct. 14), Coach Bolender is letting us run a 5K time trial on the track under the lights! It will be a fun time, and we should see several fast times because it's on the track, which tends to lead to faster times, and the weather is cooling off a bit!
October 6, 2020
This past Saturday morning, while all ‘normal’ college students were still curled up in bed, our team rubbed the sleep out of our eyes at 5:40 a.m. as we loaded the bus to head to Louisville, Kentucky. Coach Bolender modified our workouts some last week, so our legs would be fresh for the race. All week he told us that it would be a flat course and a great day to PR! So, naturally, we were all pumped and ready to run fast.
At 11:14 a.m., we stood on the starting line, waiting for the gun to go off. After what was probably the longest 60 seconds of my life, the clock finally hit 11:15 a.m., and we were off. The race went out very fast, but we were still able to run well despite the faster than usual start. Several of our girls ran PR’s, and four of our runners finished in the Top 10, leading our team to a first-place finish! Our second win in a row against some great competition. Rachel Sweeney led our team finishing in sixth with a time of 18:16 (PR). She was followed by Alayna Ackley (18:17), Remington Hobson (18:22), Naomi Herman (18:24 PR), Hannah Rhem (18:41 PR), Bethany Sholl (18:44) and Claire Smout (19:20 PR) to round out the Top 7. After the race, Coach told us that at the 2K Lee University was winning by nine points, but we ended up beating them by 27 points! I guess that goes to show the importance of running smart and running OUR OWN race. A lot can happen in 3.1 miles!
This week the captains chose Claire Smout and Naomi Herman as our team Athletes of the Week. Claire passed the most people (29) after the 2K and PR’d by one second! Naomi has been consistently improving all season and also ran a PR!
Coach Bo treated us to Longhorn Steakhouse after the meet! He always says, “if you’re going to run like a horse, you gotta eat like one.” After our bellies were full of steak, burgers, bread, dessert, and more, we headed back to campus. We are off for the next two weekends as we gear up for the G-MAC Championship on October 24th in Tiffin, Ohio!
September 30, 2020
This past weekend we had another opportunity to race, this time on our home course, and our team killed it. Before the race Coach Bo and Coach Katie encouraged us to run every race like it was our last, and that is what our team did. We had a first-place team finish, and our top five runners were all under 19 minutes! Not to mention the fact that several of our girls set PR's. Remington Hobson was our team’s Athlete of the Week for her outstanding performance and nearly 20 second PR (18:21). She had a second-place team finish and finished 8th overall. It was a little warm on Saturday morning, but right before our race, God blessed us with some cloud cover and a cool breeze, which, when combined with the dry ground and dead grass, made for pretty close to ideal racing conditions.
This weekend was also exciting because we got to see several of our alumni at the race. An alumni team ran for the second year in a row, and it was so good to see old teammates and even get the chance to run with them again.
We are lightening our training load a little this week in preparation for the Louisville Classic this weekend. We are all super excited about this meet because the course is relatively flat and fast, AKA, a PR course!! Although often inaccurate this far out, the weather is supposed to be perfect on Saturday with highs in the low 60's which will make for some speedy times.
We would all greatly appreciate your prayers that God would continue to keep our team healthy and out of quarantine/isolation. Several students on campus are getting sick with COVID or other illnesses, and as you may know, the men's team was unable to race this past weekend because a couple of their runners tested positive for the virus. God has been so gracious and protected our team from COVID and other illnesses this season, and we are so thankful for this. We would appreciate your prayers for continued protection as well as healing for those who are sick on the men's team and protection for the rest of their team.
September 23, 2020
Hello again everyone, thanks for tuning in!
We had a great week of training last week. Since we did not race this past weekend, we were able to train pretty hard and had two tough workouts. The first one was a little easier with 3-4 2K’s at tempo pace, and the second one was a little harder with 5-6 1K’s at two-mile race pace. Although the workouts were challenging, everyone did a great job and worked hard, knowing that these workouts help us reach our goals.
Most of us, not including my southern self, enjoyed the cooler weather we got this weekend. It made for a nice long run and some cooler workouts. Personally, I prefer to run in the low 60’s-70’s, but I realize I am in the minority here. Weekends we don’t have meets are a great time for us to relax a little and get caught up on sleep and homework, and that is what this past weekend was. In addition to our long run, we did homework, slept, and to have a little fun we ended the weekend with a team night at Young's Jersey Dairy. We ate ice cream and then went to play mini-golf. Since we are so busy with running and school most of the time, it’s nice to take a night and do something fun as a team every now and then. Everyone had a great time, and with our off weekend behind us, we look forward to the next two weekends where we will be racing.
This coming Saturday, September 26 is our home meet - the Cedarville Open. The men run at 11 a.m., and we run at 12 noon. The following weekend we will race at the Louisville Classic. We are all super excited to get another chance to race and can’t wait to see what we can do at these next two meets. We have a strong and deep team that has worked hard, is working hard, and is ready to chase some goals.
Another exciting thing about this coming weekend is we will be having our second alumni team race. It will be good to see old teammates and exciting to race with some of them again.
September 16, 2020
Hi everyone, my name is Bekah Jenkins, and I will be the blogger for this year. This is my fourth season on the women’s cross country team, but it is my first year racing. Over the last three years, I have battled one injury after another and have been unable to compete as a result. I am thankful to be healthy and able to race for my final year at Cedarville.
Although this season will look a little different from the past due to COVID, we have a great group of returners and newbies who are ready to run. Even though there will be no NCAA Nationals this season, we are not letting it get us down. We are staying focused on what we can do and working just as hard. We are all so thankful for the chance to compete, and we are not taking any races for granted, as many schools do not get this opportunity this season.
We kicked off our season this past weekend at the Hillsdale Invitational with a 6K. It was a challenging course, but we had several outstanding performances with a second-place team finish. Alayna Ackley led the Lady Jackets team winning the race with a nine-second lead (22:08). She was followed by Bethany Sholl (23:13), freshman Naomi Herman (23:16), Hannah Rhem (23:27), and Remington Hobson (23:41) rounded out the Top 5. The meet was a great start to our season, and we are excited to see where we will go from here.
We are off this weekend but looking forward to next weekend, where we will get another opportunity to race on our home course at the Cedarville Open!
Bekah Jenkins is a senior from Waxhaw, North Carolina. She is a four-year member of the Lady Jacket distance running program and a Dean's List student as a visual communication design major at Cedarville University.
