With a streak of days in the high 90s (my car, clearly an alarmist, told it was 103 when I pulled into the student parking lot on Tuesday), MVXC has been making the best of a tough situation.
On Monday, the team headed out to run our “track” workout on the tip of Matador’s Point, from the REI trail cutoff to the keyhole–right next to the reservoir. Andrew Liu reported that there was a patch of trail where it actually felt cool!
Tuesday, 103 or no, we ran to the McClellan green space, did some standing core in the shade, and treated ourselves to popcicles and some ice down our shirts.
And on Wednesday, almost 40% of the team was up and running at 6:30 am, watching the sunrise while cruising Up and Over before the heat truly hit us. Getting out of my car at 5:45 am I realized I had no need for a sweatshirt! Yikes.
I am truly happy to get to school early for such a motivated, energetic, positive group!
Artichoke!
I like the Artichoke race a bunch, and not only because I won a medal there 48 years ago.
It’s a fun, fast course where your family can see you several times without moving around a lot. Check out the course map. A supporter can start at Lagoon (that’s the swimming pool, ha!), and then watch at Jack Knife Turn without moving much. A quick walk will take you to Bottle Neck for a third pass. The runners will come back to you at Calvin’s Corner, and you can cheer again on Separation Flat–Separation Flat is a good spot to cheer; this is the 2-mile point, and the runners will have about .3 miles to the finish. You can help them kick-off to the finish line! Walking fast, you can take the shortcut from Separation Flat to the track and see the runners hit the finishing chute.
Any of the girls who can break 16 minutes will earn a spot in the Monta Vista top 25 all-time marks; for the boys, it will take 13:25 (for what it’s worth, Coach Flatow ran a 12:03 in 1976 as his Willow Glen Rams edged Carlmont for the championship and stomped on the Matadors; we ran Cougar Hill back then but the course was revised, so I don’t know how comparable the time is to what we will run this Saturday. I loved my high school cross country!). For freshmen boys, 14:32 or better gets you in the top 25, and girls you need a 17:32. Anika Bhandarkar (17:22), Manasi Prasad (19:30), Siran Gao (19:51), and Tanay Parikh (15:05) will be trying to break their PRs from freshman year.
Freshmen boys will kick us off at 9:00 am so let’s all be there to cheer them off; and boys, after your race, I hope to see you split up into groups all over the course to yell for your teammates! Bring a snack, or some money for tacos, to refuel. There are plenty of good places to hang out and scream for your friends!
You can follow MVXC results for The Artichoke on athletic.net.
