Monta Vista cross-country has a distinguished visitor coming–Desiree Davila!
Desiree is a professional runner with the Hanson-Brooks team. Earlier this year, Desiree finished 2nd at the Boston Marathon in one of the most exciting marathon finishes of all time (your coach had to watch the video replay as he was well back in the pack at the time Desiree crossed the finish line!). Desiree’s 2nd place was the highest finish for an American woman in Boston in 18 years, and her 2:22:38 was the third fastest marathon by an American woman all-time.
Desiree has been on USA national teams more than once, has been on the podium at the USATF championships in the 10K, and was a college All-American in both cross-country and track & field.
Desiree is currently training for the USA Olympic Team marathon trials race, which will be held in Houston next January.
You can read some more about Desiree here:
http://bostonmarathon.runnersworld.com/2011/04/desiree-davila-makes-it-honest.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiree_Davila
http://www.oregonlive.com/trackandfield/index.ssf/2011/04/boston_marathon_desiree_davila.html
We will meet Desiree at cross country practice on Wednesday, October 12. It might be a good day to rock your MVXCOUNTRY training shirts–I’m guessing we will have some fun photo opportunities!
GirlPower: Dinner with Desiree
Would you like to have dinner with Desiree Davila? On Wednesday night (October 12), I’m going to take Desiree and some of the Monta Vista XC women out to dinner at Maggiano’s in Santana Row at 7pm. Any girl on the cross-country team who is interested in joining us should write three or four sentences telling me ‘Why I’d like to go to Dinner with Desiree.’ Get these to me by Friday and we’ll let you know on Monday who is joining us. This is a chance to get to know one of the world’s leading runners!
(Needless to say, your schoolwork comes first, so you have to be caught up on homework, be nailing all your classes, and your parents have to be OK with you being out on Wednesday night! And you have to have a way to get to the restaurant and back).
–Coach Flatow