Mascenic Team Blog – Week 3
The Vikings began week three by working on a skill that Mascenic runners have been closely associated with over the years: hills. A
half-mile away from our school lies a 300 meter long uphill, nicknamed Housing Development Hill, which we, of course, decided to run up and down enough times to drive a person insane.
Following a relatively long easy run on Tuesday, the Mascenic crew headed up to Coe-Brown for a scrimmage on Wednesday. Along with some of the other teams there, we decided to use the unofficial meet as a workout, with our goal to run the first two miles of the race at tempo pace, but give it our all in the last mile. Overall, the Vikings fared pretty well with the rest of the field, and executed the workout smoothly. What didn’t go down smoothly is the quart of chocolate milk a teammate (who will go unnamed) decided to chug on the way home.
The team practices ended on Thursday this week, due to the fact that Smith was heading down to New York for a camping trip the second the final dismissal bell rang on Friday. However, the Vikings were advised to get in a few runs on our own time over the long weekend, which I’m sure the majority did, in order to prepare for our first official meet of the season on Tuesday – the Jamie Martin Invitational.
Mascenic Team Blog – Week 4
The Jamie Martin Invitational gave me a little déjà vu from the last time I ran at the meet two years ago; I wasn’t able to go last year, since I was in drivers ed at the time. Ironically, my teammate Madi had to miss it this year for drivers ed as well! Anyway, two years ago I vividly remember the temperature being close to 90°F – it wasn’t quite that scorching last Tuesday; however, the humidity definitely made up for it. Our girls’ team was feeling a little queasy from the heat, but we were able to push through it. The Mascenic boys didn’t seem to suffer at all – quite the opposite! Whether they thrived in the heat or whether they were motivated to earn a top 25 t-shirt, the Viking boys were able to put their top 5 runners in the top 18, and their first win of the season under their belts! Congrats, guys!
Wednesday brought us some more lovely weather in the form of down-pouring rain throughout the day – some of our seasoned athletes, who suspected a certain event was overdue, came to practice prepared with a second pair of shoes. After a bit of debate, it was decided that we would use the day to further initiate any new runners into the program with a little adventure that we like to call ‘The Beaver’. In a nutshell, we throw mud at each other and run through puddles before the big event: wading through the murkiest, slimiest, most foul-smelling body of water in New Hampshire – Beaver Pond.
As usual, we had a workout following our relatively easy day. The Mascenic crew ventured onto our home course, running half-mile repeats on the non-soggy section of it – those who didn’t bring an extra pair of shoes the day before were unfortunately stuck with soggy sneakers. We ended the week with a long run – so far one of our longest this season, with 60 to 80 minutes on the schedule. Quite a few of our team members visited one of our hidden treasures in the Nussdorfer Nature Area, simply known as “The Spring”. By getting a good enough of a running start, you can jump off of a small cliff into a refreshing spring some 15 feet below. Some of our more daring runners like to show off their cliff-jumping skills with some tricks and flips!
On one last important note, a few of our invested teammates decided that the cross-country world should be able to see and learn more about Mascenic cross country! So be sure to follow @mascenicxc on Instagram!!!
-Sam Bilodeau, Mascenic Cross Country
