A Dandy at Dawson

In typical Panther fashion, history again repeated itself at Dawson Lake, with tons of PERSONAL RECORDS for the season and/or the career of most of our runners.  I was definitely impressed and know there is MUCH MORE to come.

Of our 40 competitors, all but 3 were under 19 minutes.  OH MY GOSH, I was a proud pup.  I had a group of about 6 of our team running with me and the goal was to break 20, heck we not only did that but we broke 19.  Now mind you, ask those kids how much talking was going on the entire time...... I mean, they must of thought I wouldn't shut up.  I literally grabbed a couple by the hand and had them run lock step until the last 400 meters.  To watch what happened brought a real smile to my face.  We passed the mile mark in a tad under 9 minutes and I told them they were on pace to run 18.  Check that, I YELLED they were on pace to run 18.  Now, here's the kicker, now that the group has accomplished this, there is no turning back.  WE KNOW WHAT YOU CAN DO!

And the rest of the team, I asked in the post run meeting how many had their best times ever, and boy did I see a lot of hands go up.  I can't say enough of how we all felt about today.  And the best part, WE KNEW AND TOLD THE TEAM EXACTLY THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN, if they kept the faith and did what we asked in practice and the weekends on their own.  It sure is nice to say, SEE, I TOLD YOU SO.

Now, for the reality check.  The next 2 weeks are going to be another break down of bodies in the cycle.  We're going to work pretty hard this next week to 10 days so we are ready for the next big meet we want to do well at, the St. Joseph Invitational on September 27 (THE MEDAL MEET).  How we compete the next 3 meets and the times we put down will not compare to today, since our physical and mental preparation is for the 27th.  Everything else in between are stepping stones to get us to that point.  My challenge is to keep the team believing in the PROCESS, since that is THE MAIN THING.

We'll enjoy today's accomplishments and have some fun in the cooler weather tomorrow with the ever so coveted BANANA RELAYS.  I'm sure the team will monkey around a bit tomorrow with their fruit, so let's hope no one slips on a banana peel.