Good Luck at State Rebel Runners!

I had found these pictures going through some the other evening, and thought it was perfect timing with the State Meet starting today!    

(Training update I have to say, this week’s schedule has terrorized my running, but I promise I’m making up for it this weekend!)  Wednesday and Thursday I had things both evenings I wasn’t able to get a run in….so I’m really looking forward to a long run tonight with hopefully my biking partner. For a distance runner, Friday Night State Track meet meant you’d be running your 8 laps under the lights at Laidly Field.

2001 4x800 AA State Champions- Ritchie County

Me, Tina, Meghan, Jessie

Dad coached 3 of us girls in the picture in Cross Country; I think we tried to steal Jessie a few times to run. Maybe dad should have put her name in the newspaper J  I can’t believe it’s been as long as it has since we ran this race, but I do know it was a surprise win.  In the predictions Ritchie County wasn’t suppose to win the 4x800.  Coach Haught switched up the routine of who ran which leg of the race and it worked perfectly.  The excitement I remember of each leg of the race, I started the relay off and was so excited I could hardly keep from running to the turns to cheer on the other girls.  I even remember Jim Butta being next to me while we were breaking down the splits and comparing the times of the upcoming legs for the other teams.  Leaving the state track meet as a State Champion for a relay is a feeling I’ll never forget.  There is just something about a blue ribbon medal that looks a little prettier than all the others.

I do have to joke and say I use to claim track season as my break from dad J  He didn’t coach the track team, don’t worry his voice still echoed and carried across the track from every turn.   I did love having Coach Rick and Ryan Haught as my coach, it helped prepare me having a different style of coaching and perspective being an athlete.   (I still think they secretively talked a lot though about what to do with me) J

The entire distance group can claim, we loved days like today (well minus it being a race day) with the weather how it is.  We did a lot of trail runs as distance runners.  Our school is the perfect location along the Rails to Trails for us to just hop on it and get our longer runs in.  However, we did discover the perfect swimming hole about 3 miles down the trails to jump in and enjoy on days like today.  I remember one particular day we came back still displaying we obviously went swimming because our hair and running clothes were wet and a sprinter got mad saying we went swimming.  I suppose we had one thing going for us…..Coach Haught laughed and said something along the lines with him being ok with it because he knew we had to have ran our distance because the swimming hole was round trip 6 miles and anytime they’d like to run with us and go they were more than welcome J  I suppose it isn’t worth 6 miles to a lot of people, but we never argued we weren’t crazy runners! 

Good Luck Ritchie County Rebels!!! 

LKC Banquet

I’m a little torn what direction to take this blog entry.  Between graduations, awards banquets, and the state track meet approaching I’m going to have to play catch up on some memories and highlights.  

The usual blog update: 

I had taken this weekend off, just needed to get my legs back under me and with the schedule I had I just wanted to give my legs a little break.  I did get to enjoy some time at the farm and visiting mom and dad at the “home front”.  Dad got a good chuckle out of a new rental house story.  I sure hope I inherited his story telling characteristics. (Just maybe not the trait of forgetting if I told the story 50 times already) :)

Monday:  I ran about 6 ½ miles on the road and had some company with me while Brock road the bike.  It is a little bit more entertaining with company and I think I pick up my pace a little bit and not as aware of it.

Tuesday (last night):   I had organized an after-hours picnic for work in Ravenswood, so I think I tricked a new friend (Tracie) into running, either that or just told her afterwards we’d go running.  She never argued the remark so I found a running buddy for the evening J  I think I scared her for just a bit, I had a little bit of dad in me with my response to her “I’m gonna die running with you”.  I simply said…”you won’t die running, you’ll pass out first”.  We ran around the riverfront park and looped through town a little bit.  It was almost 4 miles and always glad to have a new running friend J 

End of Season Banquets are approaching and I jusst wanted to share a little picture showing my senior year of high school’s LKC Banquet (Little Kanawha Conference, that was our sports conference title).   Dad was Conference Coach of the Year that year (I think…yikes I may have to check that, but I think that’s the trophy he has in his other hand) I do know our basketball team won conference that year (thanks to the trophy for that fact) J  We competed in a pretty tight nit conference and it was always nice to see everyone after the seasons on a “neutral field” to celebrate a season of accomplishments.  I look back and realize how many friends dad had that were other coaches, and I think it spoke highly of the level of respect that was distributed among them all. 

Me, Dad (Coach), and Mom the sports mediator