Are you ready to Rumble?! Hundreds of runners were this past Saturday at the Creasey Mahan Nature Preserve, myself included. Around 6:15 (when I got up that morning), it was freezing cold and pouring down rain. For Assumption, the day began at 7:30 AM when we met up outside of our tent to jog through the course. Our tent is always easy to find because it's so short and perpetually surrounded by food.
By this point, the rain had slowed to just a few large, cold drops. This didn't stop the course from being muddy and slick. While we ran the course, the coach instructed us to run in as many straight lines as possible, which would have been very helpful if we had remembered to do so. I'm sure that the other teams found us quite comical, slipping and sliding at every turn.
The course itself has two major hills. The first was quick and steep while the second had a slightly milder incline and seemed to take longer, both covered with mulch. I'm pretty sure that it they hadn't been covered in mulch, all of the runners would have gone sliding right back down those hills.
We finished our jog with enough time to change our socks and put on our spikes before the race. Rumble Through the Jungle had its races organized in the exact opposite order of those at Tiger Run. That meant that the JV Girls race was first.
My absolute favorite thing about this meet was the way that they played music while we ran. During practices and other meets, we don't listen to music and sometimes the running can get a bit boring. However, with this meet, there were speakers all over the course, so there was very little time when one couldn't hear it. Before the meet, girls could even be seen singing and dancing at the start line. Okay, that one was mostly me but there were others, too. I promise!
Also, I noticed that I got my second wind right around when one of my favorite songs started playing (and I couldn't have been the only one). All in all, I love the idea of playing music during meets, so long as it doesn't pose as a distraction from . . . running? Anyway, once the rain cleared up and the music started, the race was a blast. JV took the meet (the top runner being Sophie Beavin) and varsity came in second, with Meghan Carrico as the fastest runner. Congratulations to all of the runners who came out in that weather and to all of the winning teams.