First Meet at IUP and Autism Race September 9, 2007

Dear Readers,

Sorry to leave you hangin’ for so long, I have been away at a wedding in Pittsburgh and all this week my family and I have been sick. But, this is my recollection of my first meet at IUP.

Well, for spectators, cross country isn’t for the impatient, since it takes about 25 minutes (or longer if it’s a long course) to run 3 miles. On a good day, it would take me 20 minutes. Well, that is why I was very surprised that my family and to my complete surprise that my old principal, Mr. Horner from South Park showed up for the alumni and varsity IUP meet on campus in August of 1996. I have to tell you, I actually get pretty flustered when there are people I know in the crowd for some reason, and that is when I do my very worst. I started off a little shaky, but I at least finished ahead of a couple girls. I would have done better if I had paced myself. The course that we ran was in the field in the park near campus and goes past the graveyard and ends on the horse track where they have the Indiana County Fair. It’s actually not too hilly so it is to the runners’ advantage, but when it’s hot out, it’s hard since only the graveyard is shaded.

I recently ran a 5K in April of 2007 for Autism and all my in-laws, my husband and baby came to see me run and I actually threw up after the race because I was so nervous that they came to see me run. Plus, they snuck an incredibly steep hill in the course (which even the volunteers working the start and end point didn’t know about). I remember Kevin from my high school team used to puke almost after each practice. I don’t know if I would keep running if I would do it after every run. Luckily, my father-in-law had a bag and it was just water. Icky. Did that ever happen to anyone else? I also would get horrible charlie horses, or wouldn’t watch my footing and get kicked by other spike wearers (my WPIAL track meet, which was pretty important) because my dad came to see me run. I guess I was too worried about where he was and if I would run fast enough for his approval… Silly to think about, since that stuff shouldn’t matter when your racing though.

-Liz

First Practice at IUP September 2, 2007

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

IUP Cross Country, My Beginning August 30, 2007

What I liked at IUP was the freedom, and the pursuit of parties, and talking to cute guys. Plus, all of that came with the package of meeting amazing friends, like Tanya, and of course, running. Running was a pain and grace all in one. When I ran, I could concentrate on my problems and sort them out usually be the end of the run (especially if it was 10 mile run Monday), also I didn’t have to worry about my figure, until I got mono and then later got the stress fractures. Also, when you are on a college team, you have a certain obligation to eat the right stuff, stay up only to do homework during the week and to concentrate on your studies so you can stay on the team. I miss the drive for excellence, the exhilaration of the race and talking with everyone on the team. I have a network of moms that I see each week, but I can’t talk about the good ‘ol days with them.

The person that introduced me to it all was Vonnie from South Park High School. She is a year older than me, and I suspect she’s still running hard. I came up and met Coach Fry, Moser, Mike and Dougie the night before my French and English entrance exam (which I did great on – hooray, I didn’t have to take French because I did so tres bien). I have to say, I envied them when I had to go home the next day, because they got to live a free life at college during the summer, while I worked at Ames to save for college. Meeting Coach Fry was nice, he was very hospitable, and seemed much younger than his age and he really can identify with his runners because he is one.

Also, I got to go to my first college party (no drinking for me – and dad I was offered, but declined) so I could ace my tests. It was in a basement of one of the fraternities (Moser was the president for). Nothing really exciting happened, but it was nice to catch up with Vonnie and meet new people.

Did anyone have a similar experience before starting for the cross country team? Please leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

-Liz