It is the biggest stage Michigan has to offer. Take the best of the best from each regional and put them into one race and you get this monster. The MHSAA State Finals. States is something I trained for since early June. However, it did not go how I wanted...
500 miles of summer running, biking until I felt like my legs were going to just shrivel up and fall off, and core until my body could not handle the pain anymore all led up to the meet on November 2nd 2013. My season up to Regionals was sub par up to my standards. However, qualifying for the State meet made the work all worth it. My goal since freshman year was to achieve All State honors in cross country. After being injured my junior year I was finally given the opportunity to achieve my dream.
The trip down to states was very long. States is held at the NASCAR track, Michigan International Speedway, in Brooklyn. Which was a very long six hour round trip. When we arrived in Brooklyn we stayed at a house on a 1000 acre YMCA resort. When we were there we moved around the beds to create one gigantic one. We also played Apples to Apples. Coach O'malley was very good at the game. Somehow he had a word for every single category. I personally think he was cheating because he had the whole deck next to him... For dinner we went to Outback. The perks of being an individual state qualifier is the school buys your food. So, I ordered a $22.00 steak and desert. Thanks CHS! :) After dinner it was relaxing time. The biggest race of my life was quickly approaching...
The next morning we did our usual thing like shower and eat breakfast then it was off to MIS. Michigan International Speedway is huge! If you have never been there I will attempt to briefly explain it. As you approach the stadium there is billboards everywhere to let you know you are approaching. After you drive under the third billboard you see this enormous stadium. As you enter the stadium you drive through this 400m tunnel that goes under the race track. Then it opens up and you see the beauty. Bleachers colored yellow and red. And thousands of cars and ten thousand runners. This is the mother of all races. The course starts on the infield of the track and runs from one end of it to the other. You then cut across the track and run outside of the stadium for majority of the race. However, the last 1200m are all along the edge of the track and into the finish.
The actual race is even more of a monster than the race set up. Like every cross country meet you or your team is assigned a "box" on the starting line. At states every team that qualifies has their own box but, individuals share boxes with runners from other teams. I had runners from Adrian, Mason, Gaylord, and Gull Lake all in my box. Once the referee shoots the gun everything is different. Its like a charge goes through every single runner at the same time to make them take off the speed of a bullet. The noise from the spectators is like no other... I describe it as being right next to the speaker at a concert. You cannot comprehend anything anyone is saying. The noise is just there and you cannot escape it. There is spectators lined up shoulder to shoulder the whole way except the last 1200m on the 3.1 mile course. The competition is the most competition anyone will ever race. Everyone that is there deserves to be there because they put the work in to make it. If you try to settle into a pace or slow down ten people pass you. It is a constant pushing the pace the whole time. Plus the course was all mud and water because the rain we had nights before. That really took energy out of your legs.
I felt like a deer in head lights. I had never raced anything remotely that big. I ran what I describe as the worst race of my life. My legs felt like they were stuck in cement and did not want to move. The most important part of running is your mind and I was psychologically off of my game. All State is Top 30 and I was not even close. My dream of standing on that podium had evaporated...
Standing on the All State podium and looking out into the crowd with 29 other runners by my side is something I had always wanted. I literally had dreams of doing. To think I did not do it and will never do it is demoralizing. I was in a very rough place emotionally after the race and even more later that night when I opened up the notes in my phone. I keep all of my running goals in my phone and when I opened it I saw "XC All State" in it. Right there I threw my phone without any hesitation because I was disgusted. I feel like I failed myself not achieving my goal...
After a lot of thought I should not be disappointed. I had one of the best XC careers in CHS history. I was the second runner in school history to score in every single meet from freshman year to senior year. I earned four varsity letters and was a two time captain. I also medaled at more than 90% of the races I competed in. I also did what many runners have never done and that was actually run in a XC State Meet. And best of all I had fun. I could not be more thankful to be given the opportunity to succeed in the Cadillac blue and gold.
I am also going to try to turn this sense of "failure" into a positive. I am going to use it as motivation to make indoor and outdoor track very special and work harder than ever. All in all, states was an amazing experience that I will never forget.
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