2022 Mascenic Blog Week 2

By Mike Smith

Week two of Mascenic’s cross country season started off with the first yearly 300’s workout, raining as always. Thankfully, our usage of the track was not hindered by the rather tepid drizzle, as it had been in the past, and our team grinded out our 8-14 laps, traveling around the softball field for about 200 meters of recovery each time. It was utterly unenjoyable (personal opinion) and the humidity only added to the misery.

Following our workout, on Tuesday, we had a long run spanning 55-65 minutes.  The run itself was relatively uneventful. The girls went out for 65 minutes and realized 35 minutes in that we wouldn’t make it in time, so we turned around, and still didn’t make it back on time. After our long run, we completed the routine 6 strides, yoga walks, and jump rope.

After Tuesday’s long run, we’re back to a workout, choosing to run up dusty dirt hills named after the Dipsea race, which is in California. You would run up one side of the hill, and then down the other, turning to run back up that hill, and down the first. Like every workout we do, the weather was sub par(far too hot to even run in my opinion), so we threw ourselves over the railing of the nearby bridge into the rather refreshing water below. Some of the newbies were reluctant to jump, but not the returnees, who without hesitation launched themselves down towards the murky river.

Thursday was preparation for our meet on Friday, and was rather boring, if I do say so myself. Twenty minutes warm up, 5 starts, and twenty minutes cooldown. The only interesting thing I would say happened would be that each start we practiced was initiated with a strange game of duck duck goose. It would work that members of the boys team would each say duck until one decided to say goose, and following the word, the run would begin.

Our final day of the week was interesting to say the least as we traveled to Kearsarge Regional High School for the annual Hillbilly Relay. We took on the hour twenty minute bus ride with high spirits, Taylor Swift and Mackelmore music, and a collection of ridiculous team outfits, including, though not limited to, Napoleon Dynamite cosplay, Santa shirts, hippies, and displays of German pride. On the boys team, Drew and Derrick won the Hillbilly relay and on the girls team, Amelia and Brielle won the Hillbilly relay. On the bus ride back, we made a stop at the Harvester Market for food. All in all, not a bad start to this fall season.