Home with Hopkinton, 9/30/2020

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While the dry wells and rocky riverbeds were disappointed to see the rain move out earlier than expected, a silver lining of beautiful weather for running arrived in time for the races. With socially distant starting “dots” instead of a line, the girls lined up (or is it “dotted up?” first for the first home running event since October 2019.

Just as the rain departed early, so did Sophia Reynolds depart from the pack of runners, taking the lead for good at the 1 meter mark. Already in the 3rd mile of a 5 mile workout, Sophia “accidentally” ran a minute too fast over the first mile (“My watch said 7:05!”, as she came through close to 6:15). Carlie, running a little bit of a yo-yo race - faster, slower, faster, slower...etc. - was the #2 MV runner across the line for the second straight week, with a time almost 2 minutes faster than the week before. Alyssa, Victoria, and MacNeill were the remaining scorers and the next finishers, each running a bit of a solo effort for the entire way but in sight of each other, and each multiple minutes faster than the previous week. In fact, Victoria cut over TWO MINUTES off her PR from a year ago. Among the remaining runners, Liz notably also ran a rather sizable PR, probably due to the “fighter face” she carried for the majority of the first half of the race.

Anna cracked the 30 minute barrier for the first time this year, and even got the chance to throw down her trademark kick at the end, outdistancing a Hopkinton runner. Emmaleigh powered through to almost break 30, while newcomer Macie was not too far behind. Trinity and Taylor each showed multiple-minute improvements over last week to wrap things up for the MV girls.

After a tough race at Coe-Brown, the boys were determined to make a statement on their home course and this was a perfect opportunity to practice being competitive as a team. At the sound of Sandu’s air horn, they sprinted away from their socially-distanced starting dots. Motivated by watching professional races on Youtube all day, an ambitious Zach immediately took the lead, eager to lower his PR from the week before. Luckily, Zach slowed to a much more reasonable pace as the initial adrenaline rush settled.

As they approached the first mile, a pack of Hopkinton’s top boys had broken away, but Ethan was not far behind. Marshall and Elisha crossed the first mile marker right after Ethan, followed by a strong duo of Oliver and Jack, and then a trio of Ryan, Zach, and Trevor while Chris battled for a PR behind them. Before the race, the boys were advised to work together and try to pack up, so seeing this play out felt like a victory in itself (not to mention the slew of PR’s and improvements that would come later).

While the ravine section of the course was grueling for many of the runners, it also allowed the boys to reap the benefits of last week’s hill workout. Ethan (who eats hills for breakfast) powered through the ravine, but lingering injury pains held him back and he lost contact with Hopkinton’s top guys. The final stretch of the race saw many breakthroughs for the boys. Marshall was able to translate his impressive workouts at practice over to a strong finish in 5th place as MV’s #1 runner, cutting off over a minute from his time last week. Elisha came in right behind him, helping to prevent Hopkinton from sweeping the race. Ethan pushed through the pain in his foot to take the 3rd spot on the team with Oliver right on his heels taking the 4th spot. Jack kicked it in for the 5th spot to give the team a solid 39 points.

The cross country rookie Zach sprinted to a big PR of 22:03, shaving a minute off his time from last week and putting him one step closer on his quest for sub-20. After working together the entire race, Trevor closed out the top 7 with Ryan close behind. Not only did Ryan shave a whopping SIX minutes off his time from last week (yes, he was sick last week but still…), he also scored a new lifetime PR. Chris walked away with a three (!!) minute PR, and the second largest week-long improvement of the day. Chris also deserves a shout out for completing the entire 6-mile training run last week even though he was only required to do the first three miles. Hard work pays off! Based on the work ethic of this group of boys, I’d say the improvements this season will be plentiful.