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FLRC Newsletter - Feb 2004 |
| USATF National XC Championships | |
On December 9th, my mom and I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I had qualified for USATF National Cross Country Championships. On the night of the 9th we drove to Santa Fe. The moon over the desert that night was spectacular. We arrived at my Grandpa's friend's adobe house. We stayed in her little guest house. The adobe houses around there were so cool.
Ithaca United Track Club members at USATF
Nationals in New Mexico: Elizabeth Reamer, Coach Andri Goncarovs, Natasha
Way, Jonathan Fazzary, Andris Goncarovs
The next morning we started to explore Santa Fe. We started that day off with a good breakfast at the Plaza restaurant. After a while of looking around Santa Fe we found a park. There I did my first run in New Mexico. It was so surprising to find how hard it is to run at high altitude. I could barely breathe.
My next run was at Bandelier. I ran up and down the side of a hill. That was very hard as well. During all those days at N.M. I drank a whole lot of water and ate extremely well. The Mexican food was fabulous. Finally on the day before the race, we headed out to see the course with the other members of the Ithaca United team that went to New Mexico. When we got there it was snowy and the course was closed. We were very frustrated, so we went to breakfast. After breakfast we went back to the course just in case it had opened. It had kind-of opened. We could walk around the soccer complex which was where the race was. If only we could have walked on it! The whole reason this had happened was because USATF made a rule that the race has to be on grass and the grass was what was going to be ruined if we ran on it. We could have run through the desert which would have been more interesting.
After we had walked around the outside we went to pick up shirts. As we were getting the shirts, they put up a sign that said: "The course is open"! When we were done getting the shirts we raced out to the course. This time we actually got to walk it. There were not too many hills. It was all grass. So not the most exciting course. We also saw that there were two start lines. That was interesting. We looked at the course and then we left. For pre-race dinner we ate at Bennigan's. It was not so good, as in pretty bad.
After dinner we went to the opening ceremony. There were some Mexican musicians. They were really good. All the athletes paraded through the auditorium. That was really hectic. Nobody knew quite what to do.
On race day, we got up early and met the group in the lobby. The breakfast in the hotel was nasty. Then we headed out to the course. We found out we could park really close because my mom was on crutches. Elizabeth, Andris, and I warmed up with Coach G and went over our strategies. By then it was time to race.
I was in the first race with the other Bantam girls (9 and 10 year olds). I stood in my box, box 7, and waited for the gun to go off. It felt like forever and I was cold. At least it wasn't snowing. As soon as the gun went off I got hungry. That wasn't fun. Also I had to try to avoid running into about 270 other girls. The only things I remember after that were these things. There was a girl near me who sounded like a fog horn. That was kind of funny. My coach was telling me to speed up a little as I went over one of the few hills, but I could barely breathe because of the high altitude so I didn't know how I was going to go faster. There was way too much grass. I also remember seeing this tiny girl go past me and then fall behind and do that a bunch of times. Basically I wasn't aware of much although my biggest memory was seeing a girl lying down next to the course crying with a bunch of people standing over her. Later I found out she had fallen down and then gotten stepped on with spikes and then limped to the finish when everyone had passed. The end wasn't what I remembered from our walk. I had to make another turn. At the actual end they made us stand in the chute for what felt like hours. Finally I ran to find my mom. Then I started my warm down. My time was 15:38 for the 3K and I got 139th. It was really cool running with all those different girls and realizing they were the best from all the different states. Throughout the day I watched the rest of the races.
I never saw Elizabeth on the course, but I heard she looked really strong. She came in 204th and her time was 14:35. She had really hard competition and was affected by the high altitude. I missed Andris as well but I saw him right afterward. He looked really good. His place was 22nd with a time of 11:55. Since he was in the top 25, he was All American. I saw Jonathan and Patrick's 4k race. Jonathan came in 64th with a time of 15:51 and Patrick placed 206th with a time of 17:23. They were also very challenged by the high altitude and had trouble breathing. Then came Christian. He did a 5k race. His time was 18:21 and he placed 35th in his race.
Other people that we know from running included Andrew Bednarsky from the Transy East team in New Jersey. He has always gotten first at USATF, but this year Timond Chubb from the DC Red Wings beat him in the Midget Boys race. Bednarsky came in 2nd.
It was very interesting watching all the different runners from 49 of the 50 states. Some of them were so fast. So it was a pretty good day, but I wished I had done better.
Natasha Way exhausted at the end of her Jr. Natl XC Championship race.
That night we went to the Awards ceremony. Coach G couldn't come because he was sick. At the awards ceremony, they gave out Acoma pottery to everyone that had placed in the top 3 teams or that got All American. Some Native Americans from the Laguna tribe did the Eagle Dance. That was amazing. It was neat to watch everyone get their award although it made me wish I could be up there with them.
Our trips (outside of Albuquerque) included going to Santa Fe. There we looked at a lot of old adobe buildings and houses. We also did a lot of shopping. That was very fun. Another trip was to Bandelier with Elizabeth's family. That is where the Anasazi tribes lived. We climbed up 140 feet on ladders to a cave in the cliff. Petroglyph National Monument was also very cool. We hiked up hills and saw a thousand-year old rock drawings. That was very thrilling.
Our last (but certainly not least) trip was to Acomo Pueblo which was on a mesa that was 385 feet tall. It was neat to hear all its history and then see people that live there today. That trip was fabulous. I want to go back there again some day.
Natasha Way, Andris Goncaravs, Jonathan Fazzany touring at Acoma Pueblo after the USATF Natls 12/14/03.
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