8/19 update

Braves,

I love cross country season. The practices, the races, the traveling, all of it. It is such a unique sport. We are lucky to be a part of it, each one of us, so I hope you enjoy this season. State is 2 months away, making the competition season of xc one of the shortest sports done in schools. Let’s continue to use each day wisely, compete together in practice, and continue to improve as a team.

The results for yesterday’s meet can be found here: http://www.runnercard.com/results3/meet?meetId=f6f32bda-9b22-4f49-9150-6ffb071c0f2f

There were so many amazing performances yesterday. I have spent hours looking over the results and comparing them with past years etc., and what I found was some truly great things from our team. One stat that I found amazing was that nearly everyone one of our runners moved up in the field with each mile, meaning over the final 2 miles we past WAY more people than passed us. This tells me that we have a lot of determination and strength, and while we have a long way to go as a team, we couldn’t be happier with the first step we took. There are seriously tons of stats like these, so I cannot share them all. I will try and write down some of the details to be shared at practice, but I haven’t had the time to list them all yet (too busy trying to soak it all in). One thing that stood out was Naomi Campbell ran about 5 minutes faster this year than last, going 1:40 per mile faster. Kimball didn’t run here last year, but the first race he did run was over 7 minute pace and yesterday he was around 6:30. The 2 freshmen that raced yesterday, Sammi and Rylee, also had outstanding races. I was very impressed with their poise and effort as they battled through the heat. Although this was their first xc race, the moment was not too big for them and they controlled their races remarkably well, and looked like experienced racers, which is a credit to the hard work they put in this summer.

Yesterday was an awesome day, but it was one step on this journey. We have a ton of work still to be done, let’s keep building on it, do some great things, and have a lot of fun on the way.

Next week we will be racing at the weber county fairgrounds for our pre region race. We will face all the schools in our region and will be racing on the course that will be used for the region championships in October. This is an important race to get familiar with the course and get some great work in.

The bus for this meet leaves at 12:45, which is crazy early. Although the race begins with the girls (JV and Varsity combined) at 3:30, and the boys at 4, the district is making all schools leave at exactly 12:45 so the bus drivers can get back to pick up the elementary students who have early out all week. After this meet we will not need to leave so ridiculously early for the races, or so I am told. I would like for each of you to email your last period teachers to let them know that you will be excused before class begins, and ask them how you can get the information you will miss, and what you can do to make up anything that is missed. This is a good strategy for the rest of the year as well. If you have any questions about the early departure time, please don’t hesitate to ask me.

On our schedule we have the Westlake grass relays this coming Saturday. At this point we would like to forego that meet, so that we don’t have 3 races in 10 days. It feels like it would be too much racing at this point, which would restrict our training and limit what we are trying to accomplish long term this year.

Practices this week will be at 2:30 Monday/Tuesday, and 2:40 once school has begun (except for freshmen whose practices will begin at 3:15). If you have any questions please let me know. Looking forward to getting back to it on Monday as we prepare for our next step of the year at Pre region.

Coach Jacobson