Justin Downs, Junior at Martha Layne Collins has agreed to blog for KYtrackXC.com this season. He is a member of the Class AA #3 Pre-Season Ranked Collins boys squad and is coming off a sophomore season that saw him finish 23rd overall at the Class AA Kentucky State Cross Country Meet. This first blog is a general writing about this upcoming season.
Man oh man where to begin... Past two weeks have been slow and painful. Slow not as in times in workouts but slow due to counting down the days till the first race of the season. Usually we start off at Tiger Run but not this year, instead I met up with my boys ,the team, and Drawbaugh for a nice relaxing nine miler and I can honestly say I'm glad we didn't have a race. Not to knock tiger run , that race has some great competition and a crazy finishing chute but the 9 miler really helped the team. The 9miler not only proved to newer younger runners that they could run that long but it really helped this Collins team bond. The run gave the faster runners a chance to converse with the others( since not much of that happens due to faster paces) it really helped us learn about each other and made us realize that hey, we're some pretty funny guys. Most male xc runners understand the type of conversations that go on during running, the topics seem awkward to outsiders but to the team it's just normal.
With our conversations helping build team bond it made me reflect back on past Shelby County teams. What the reflection helped me realize is that no matter how much talent a team has , it won't succeed if the team doesn't have that bond. All of the Shelby teams that I ran with had cliques and someone was always excluded now personally in 8th grade I wasn't the one excluded but I did notice a change in that excluded runner when he was put on a bonded team . To prove my theory look at the Shelby team with Stacey Eden and Alec Zaremba, how did they do at state? 8th or 9th? That team had cliques . Now look at what we, Collins, did last year,2nd. I'm not saying we didn't have cliques but they just weren't as bad as the Shelby teams.
Anyway the past weeks have been painful because my good ole friend shin splint is back once again just like every season, except this year I'm not sitting out. The pain has also been mental as I've been waiting for the chance to see what I can do a 5k in. Now, I love Shelby County's course but last year I didn't do so well. The course is rolling hills but a fun run I guess you could say I'm anxious yet nervous a bit. I'm only nervous because I do not want to disappoint my coaches like last year but then again it is just the first race and last year I believe I went 18:44 ...not good at all. But I did end up breaking 17 last year. I guess I am nervous because I don't want to embarrass myself to colleges. Some positives are that this year I have been training harder hitting my times and the team has ran with me but we will see about that on Saturday. We did a 3k time trial I ended up winning with a 10:37 not good either as that translates to a 18:10 but afterwards the 3k is different than the 5k and I believe our course is harder than people think. I look forward to this Saturday and I just want to wish everyone in the race and at other meets.
Good luck.