Challenge Brings Good Things

James Madison University Meet    9.15.12

Early in the season as I reviewed the meets with the runners, I had mentioned that our second meet would be at James Madison University against mainly Division I runners.  I also mentioned that it was a good challenging course, not too far from school and would push our number 1 runner.

Yesterday morning we arrived at the New Market Battlefield and since we didn't have to arrive early for a men's team to warm up, we were the last to arrive.  Present at the meet were JMU, the host team, Longwood College, Howard University, Virginia Military Institute and Southern Virginia University.  All except SVU are NCAA DI programs.  SVU is an NAIA program who currently is transitioning to a DIII program.

As we exited the van, some discouraging words started to take over.  Coach, we are going to be dead last.
Coach, this is going to be embarrassing.....and more that I can't remember.  I tried to assure them that each runner had a very good week of practice and that it was them against the course.  I encouraged all to try and reach a personal record.

The race began and Mary Baldwin had runners at the front, in the middle and at the end.  None of that was a surprise to me.  The first mile they had splits that were a little fast for some and a little slow for some, but I still believed good things would happen.

As the race finished, we had some surprises.  A DIII runner had finished second among a field of DI runners.  She had led most of the race and was overtaken in the last half mile.  There had been some place finish changes among our nine runners since the first meet.  At first glance it appeared that when these 5.2 K times were converted to 5 K times there would be lots of personal records.

So here is the outcome.  As a team we came in 6 out of 6 teams.  When our brilliant Coach Mark figured out the mile splits and converted the times to 5 K times we did have lots of small wins.  The tide started changing and there were encouraging words and congratulations happening among the team members.

After smiling and feeling great all afternoon and evening about the team's accomplishment, I woke up this morning and did a little more work with the times.  As a team we were 2 minutes and 10 seconds faster than our first meet.  The individual personal records varied from 2 seconds faster to 1:36 minutes faster.  So I feel that we are doing the right things in practice.

What I wonder about is our individual and team mentality.  I truly believe that looking for the good and staying positive is needed at all times even when the deck seems stacked against you.

I wonder where this team will go as we work this week not just physically, but mentally?