Today I had my first cross country meet in a month!  We have a strange month long break during season.   The race was almost all flat besides a few small hills.  There was, however, a ton of mud and the course was compltetly flooded.  That may have been because it was rainy and until right before the race.  Then it was terribly windy during the race.  I think I hate wind more than rain elthough I’m not too sure.

Girls Team

I did really well for myself; I ended up getting 6^th overall out of 103 girls.  I even got a nice backpack since the top 12 finishers get a backpack.  Then from 13-30, you get a tee-shirt.  I have about 1 million race shirts, so I suppose I’m happy with the backpack hehe.  I don’t wear too many of them anyways.

Have you ever noticed a lot of race t-shirts come in a hideous color?  Some of my favorites are the dirt orange shirt and dark brown.  I guess having 100 white shirts isn’t too fun either though hehe.

Our team has a whole did really well too.  There were a few people that had bad races but let’s just say that they brought it upon themselves…last night.  With swim team we have a 48-no drinking policy.  I wish the cross country team had that, but if you cannot honestly give up a beer the night before-I could care less how you do. By a beer, I mean getting completely drunk when our bus leaves at 6am.  Infact, I hope you do poorly.

A teammate Shannon and I

Waiting for Awards after the boys race

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I’m sitting on the bus traveling back to campus.  Can you believe this bus service has internet but I cannot get internet in airports?  How sad.

You guys have been such an open ear for me to vent too between running and swimming and school and I want to thank-you.  As cross country season comes to an end there is one more dilemma I have on October 30^th.  It is a big race for Cross country.  It is also a big meet for swimming.  For cross country, it is the first of two championships.  Our cross country team isn’t competitive enough at the top that me running in the race-would cause a place displacement for team awards.  It would, however, be a great experience for me to see these quick girls and prepare for next year.

My swim meet is quite simple.  It is the season opener.  If I do not swim the 1000, we do not have a chance of winning.  If I swim the 1000-we will most likely win.

My swim coach has been harassing me to swim and that I have been swimming so long ect ect.  He is right; however, in that I told him from the get go that swimming was my number one priority.  I just didn’t know it would mean missing a championship meet.  My cross country coach Pete, is looking at the big picture for running (which for me is next season) so he is completely fine with me missing the race.  I just am not sure I want to miss a championship race.

My dad gave me the greatest advice on the phone yesterday, “only so many people can be so lucky to have to choose between two things they love.”  If this is the worst thing in my life, then I have nothing to stress over.

Thanks Dad.

What would you do?  I love reading more responses and it so hard to ask anyone on either team.

On a side note-neither coach can punish me or kick me off the teams respectively, since it is a scheduling conflict that is beyond my control.