VARSITY ATHLETICS

September 22, 2009

Cross Country's LaDelfa Goes Under 30

By Sophomore Steve LaDelfa (Pittsford, NY)

During the workouts last week, you could tell that the team was focused and determined to put up a good showing at Calvin, and we did.

We left Veale at around three o’clock on Friday afternoon and I was nervous the whole bus ride. I tried to joke with some of the veterans who had travelled before in order to take my mind off of the race, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. This was my first race on the travel squad with the team, so I didn’t want to mess this race up. I had to prove I deserved to be there. Due to this anxiety, I didn’t eat a big enough lunch; therefore the dinner stop at Olive Garden was well needed. All you can eat pasta! I also got an unexpected surprise, a piece of birthday cake. One of my teammates jokingly told the waiter that it was my birthday, and the waiter and waitress brought me a cake and sang to me. That helped to ease my nerves.

After we got situated in the hotel, Coach Lanese gathered us in a conference room to talk some strategy. At the end of the meeting, I walked up to Coach; there was one more thing that I needed to say. “I am going to go under 30 tomorrow,” I told her steadfastly. That was my goal, to run under 30 minutes. I had never run an 8k that fast, but I knew that my summer training and hard work was paying off, and I wanted to prove what I was made of. I got a great night’s sleep in the hotel room, and I woke up ready to rumble.

On the warm-up run, I intently looked for places to “make my move” and areas where I could gain on my opponents. I was relatively unfamiliar with the course and worried that not knowing the course would prevent me from reaching my goal. At the line, I looked at my two teammates that were running the same pace as me. I looked at the other teams, they looked good. The gun shot started the race and we were off.

At the end of the first mile, I looked at my watch, 5:24. I prayed that I didn’t go out too fast as I had done many times before. But then, somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd mile, I knew that I had enough in me to get a PR (personal record). My two teammates that ran with me during the race encouraged me to keep up. My coaches were cheering, and we kept passing people. When I crossed the finish line and saw 29:59 on the large, digital clock next to the finish, I was a little disappointed. I only broke 30 minutes by one lousy second. Shoot. But then Coach Barnes ran up to me, hugged me, and squeezed me. He showed me his watch, it said 28:59, I was shocked, I must have misread the clock. I was ecstatic that I broke 30 minutes by a minute! I almost didn’t believe it for a while but people kept congratulating me with a high five or a pat on the back. Not only was this was my first race on the travel squad, it was kind of sentimental because I had a great race and got a huge PR. That was icing on the cake.

Calvin was a great race for the whole team, the men and the women. We had a ton a PR’s and everyone put forth a solid effort. The freshman definitely stepped it up; for some of them, it was their first 8k race. All the men got under 30 minutes for the race, which was the threshold we wanted to get. As a team, you could really tell that we worked together and just kept packing it up. Now we got to keep looking forward at All-Ohio and the UAA Conference Meet at the farm. Go Spartans!

Posted by: Creg Jantz September 22, 2009 09:34 AM | Category: Men's Cross Country

Posted by: cnj4 (Creg Jantz) September 22, 2009 09:34 AM | Comments (0) | Trackback