Our fifth week of cross country started relatively easy, with a simple forty minute run, giving us time to watch the middle school home meet afterwards. It’s always great to see them run, as many of us ran in middle school, so it’s cool to see kids running where we were oh-so long ago.
On Tuesday, we went down to the Greenville Rail Trail, to do a negative split run. This is one of my favorite places to run, as we don’t go there often, so it’s nice change of environment. Plus, the wooded trail makes for decent shade and good scenery. I also love negative split runs, so this was probably my highlight for the workouts of the week.
Wednesday made for our long run of the week. Sixty minutes of running, which the majority of the girls team used to venture down the Nussdorfer nature area for some trail running and a boating expedition. Hidden off one of the trails is a clearing, a murky pond, and an old metal boat. Most people would probably ignore this setting and finish their run, but the Mascenic Cross Country team is not most people. 
We squeezed six of us into the boat (maximum occupancy was stated to be two) and paddled ourselves out for a bit to talk and float around. In times past, we’ve tried to maneuver the boat using sticks and our hands, so it was nice that we were able to find some oars in a bush; made our adventure all the easier! Running can take you on some pretty great adventures, and I have to say that’s one of my favorite things about it.
The next day, the team ran downhills, the second solid workout of the week after our negative split run. These were done on our home course, but in the opposite direction, as we typically run that segment uphill.
Friday was a pretty easy day, as we had Manchester the next day to prepare for. An easy thirty minutes of running and some quick starts to top it off.
Manchester Invite on Saturday was…disapointing to say the least. On the girl’s side, the majority of our varsity squad ran well below where we typically perform, due to heat, illness, and various other factors. Luckily, Maya had a phenomenal race, almost PRing and trying her best to make up for the rest of us. Molly and Charlotte also ran good races, especially since they were told they were running on the 5k course, when they ended up running the two-mile course. Everyone was blown away when we thought they were crossing the 5k finish line with about a nine minute PR. The boys did great despite the heat, and had some good performances, including Landen, who was able to win over all, and Drew had a great finish. Hopefully, both teams will be able to learn from our experience at this meet, and we can elbow our way to the top come the Divisional meet in five weeks.
