Looking back to August of 1996, after meeting everyone at the Field House, and doing 20 situps, 20 push ups and various stretches, we ran, but not together for very long! No directions either, not that they would have helped since the other freshmen and myself had never practiced with the team, so we didn’t know where they ran. Well, I personally think I stayed with the team 3 or 4 miles until I lost them and found myself near Perkins in uptown Indiana. The only way I knew my way somewhat was from driving in town with my dad when he helped me find my dorm on move in day. Crazy. Well, most of the freshmen were in the locker room after I got back and Lauren said that she had gotten lost, and I confided that I had, too. I guess we all learned that we need to be faster next time, and to be able to stick with the team. The next few practices were of the same, which were pretty tough. It was hard to realize that I once was the fastest girl at SP, and now I was in the slower pack now. 10 mile Mondays were the hardest, but Freebie Fridays (usually the day before the meet) you could do as low as 3 miles. I ran a lot with Karen, Tanya, Lauren and a few times I went out on the weekends with the twins (they are speed demons though).
Before the first meet though, the older girls had all of us over to watch Jumanji and we had spaghetti (gotta get your carbs) at a local Italian restaurant that I remember had black spots in their water pitchers (icky). But, I liked the movie, the bonding was fun and everyone had a good time. =) We also went to the Indiana County Fair together which was nice. We didn’t have the same worries as most of the freshmen, which was who were we going to hang out with, it was already taken care of.
-Girl who loves to hate hills, Liz
I still e-mail with Tanya, but unfortunately I lost touch with others.
