Bow - 10/12/22
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With the smell of fallen leaves cross country in the air, MVXC arrived at Bow for a mid-week duel meet, our first mid-week duel since the infamous “Meh” meet, aka Violet’s Demise. Initially it had the feeling of another meh kind of day, but the race had other plans…
Arriving in plenty of time for a casual course walk, Sydney quickly commandeered the disc golf disc that Coach Irving brought and threw threw threw threw, amazingly not decapitating anyone (although the one and only time a boys team member did we almost were not so lucky). A blast from the past showed up to cheer for the girls and take part in our warm-up - Bridget Tevnan - the eldest of the three Tevnan’s who ran for MV. A 2011 graduate now living in Reno, NV and now dipping her toe into the ultra running scene, Bridget was a member of two state runner-up squads, our only New England Championship qualifying team, and a member of the only XC team to ever win a state title - the 2006 Middle School Championships (coached by Mrs. Irving!). The number of alumni we have showing up at our races makes everyone’s hearts warm, and goes to show the life-long bonds we create and the special place that MVXC is. Seniors, you will ALWAYS be welcomed back! It’s not the end of the book, just a new chapter.
On to the race. Sam, winner of the Awesome Award at Plymouth, lit fire to the course at Bow. It was an inspiring run, going from 5th to 4th to finally 3rd place in her season-best time on a legit 5k course, and a tough one at that! Sam is BACK! It was like the course kept tipping downhill as she kept getting faster and faster. On that note, I do hereby proclaim and override any alternative decision by Sam and award her the Awesome Award for the second consecutive race.
I am losing track of PR’s, but I do know that Lily was close, as was Maddy, to also running season best times (again, Plymouth was short). Paired up, they were stronger together - as our XBox CTR racing character always says. Kendra hung tough with them over two miles and faded just a bit over the final mile, but still finished as our 4th runner, just ahead of Sydney - who has become a consistent presence in the top 5. Jessi and Victoria were another race-long duo and less than a minute back to round out the top 7. Emmaleigh only needed 9 toes to run a solid time, while Anna, on a brief break from country music concerts, finished with a very good time and a KILLER kick. There was a girl closing on her in the backstretch who Anna reduced to shambles and outkicked by about 100 meters. Nicole, Tessa, and Lydia finished one after the other, while Taylor wrapped things up for the team. Somehow she powered through despite not having her faithful friend from Bow this year to chat about their latest Pinterest discoveries. All in all, a very fun, enjoyable, and FAST day!