2011 Cross Country

Welcome to the Southern Virginia Cross Country 2011 Season

Our first outing as a team was camping!

[we fit about 14 girls in these tents, ok and the van we had]

Cassie and I squished into one of the two man tents. We had the best tent since when night came we could be snug in our sleeping bags look up and star gaze. perfect! The XC Seniors: Bridget, me and CassieAll the XC girls returning from our camping trip: As tradition we took a visit to the Glen Maury PoolOur 5k Home Opener! -2loops around Dinky Hill

Our friend Jason came to cheer us on, there was a lovely fallen tree halfway up one of the hills on the course, hence "Watch out for the tree!" We all loved the extra obstacle :)Cassie and I at the end of Washington and Lee 6k. This is probably the only race where we didn't place above second but there was great competition. My Favorite Course: Roanoke!

plus Mom and Dad came to cheer me on for this race, Double Bonus!Tori, Bridget, Leah, and IGirls took 2nd!Our visit to Goshen Pass :) Love you Mom and Dad!!

We had a "drive-in" movie night where you make a car out of cardboard and go see the movie. I wanted to make a bike so my friend, John John, and I created this beauty :)
Once we "parked" the wheels popped off but other than that the bike was super!Devil's Marbleyard!
A must do hike around here.next race was at Hood College in Maryland. This was probably one of my best races of the year.
Just look at smile coming up the hill :)
Highlights: ran through a swampy mud area--there was no way around it
Got a high-five from my teammate while we were both running
Used the painted arrows on the ground as energy boosters like in Mario-kart
The whole race was so fun! And we took First!Hood College was our last official race till nationals, three weeks away!
my friend let me borrow her hat luckily. Hitting the top of the mountain the wind was getting pretty fierce.
and I was in shorts :)Nationals!!

after about a 13-hour car drive to Lake Placid, New York we made it to our last race for the season.
The day before the race we ran the course through
This is Jake and I venturing off the course just a tad.
The night before we had a banquet with all the teams.
When we came out of the hotel we found it was SNOWING!!
a good sign indeed :)All of the XC girlsI woke up on 11-11-11 to this beautiful view of Lake PlacidOur race started at 11 and right before then it began to snow :) For some reasone I still chose to only wear my uniform, it wasn't that bad... :)
Shelbi and I were so pumped for the race!If you look closely you will see this guy has a missing shoe on his left foot... This was just the beginning of the race and there was snow and mud throughout the whole course and somehow he still came in 4th place!! incredible.Well if you didn't already know...
We are the Champions, my friends!! dadadaaah!!!
:) yup yup, this here is Loretta, our trophy. Not sure where the name came about but it stuck.

USCAA 2011 Cross Country National Champions!
here you can see all the lovely girls who made it happen:

Not sure what the acorn mascot was there for but we felt like we needed a picture with him.Before heading back on our 13 hour drive we walked around the quaint little town of Lake Placid.
Found a bobsled :)and a penny facing heads up! 11-11-11 was definitely my lucky day :)Our nationals course was at the Olympic complex! we are definitely Olympic material :) Recieving a medal was way cool. I was so excited about it. Luckily I wasn't the only one who felt like they couldn't take off their medal.
Yay for being National Champions!!

After running cross country for 6 years I could not have asked for a better way to end. The whole season was wonderful, running with my buddies, being a team captain it has all been Wonderful!! Cross Country has been one of the greatest blessings in my life and I am so lucky because now running will carry on with me throughout my life. YEAH!! I love to Run!! :)