By Florrie Schaumloffel and Amelia Smith
Monday started off with a speech from Smith that recapped the Manchester Invitational and told us about the workout we were doing. Almost everyone who was a returnee ran faster on Saturday than they had at Manchester the previous year. Our workout was 800s on the cross country course. We were sent on a ten minute warm-up before heading to the baseball field to do d-flex. The 800s start behind the field hockey field and we were recommended to do two more than we did the first time when running the workout. People did between 5-8 reps of 800s.
Tuesday’s long run was 70 minutes of unbelievable boringness. The girls decided to run down to the dead end road that isn’t a dead end, and the boys disappeared into the woods at some point on the way there. We still don’t know where they went. We(the girls) were underwhelmingly under concerned as to their location, and continued on ourselves, talking about theoretical halloween costumes, and how if Ryan was a Harry Potter character he would be Ron Weasley.
Starts, starts, starts. Boring as always and generally miserable. There was a warm-up beforehand, 5 starts, core and then a cooldown. The boys team did D-Flex as well, though it was unnecessary and unplanned, because for some reason Smith asked them if they were doing D-Flex, and they decided that the answer to that question was Yes. I don’t know why. I asked, and they just shrugged like they always do (looking at you Drew).
We got dismissed from class at 12:45 on Thursday (which was a surprise), with the intent of leaving at 1, but we could not find our bus. We also could not find Derek, because he had been told the bus time was 1:45(sorry Derek). We tried to call him but HE GAVE US A FAKE NUMBER…(I’m slightly less sorry Derek)……….. So we left him behind, and got on the bus we finally located, where we immediately went out the NO EXIT SIGN… Really good start to our ride. On our trip there, we also were asked to listen for the train, as if there weren’t signals for that kinda thing. I digress. When we finally got to Belmont, we ran a loop of the course, got our bib numbers, and did all the normal, boring, warm-up things that one does. Then we ran(yay). The girls team came in first because members came in at 1-2-3-4-7. Then the guys ran. The boys came in second. Post race, brownies were obtained from the amazing concession stand, as we (the girls team) stood, waiting to give the worst interview of our lives (shout out to Ryan I guess). The trip home was relatively uneventful, though we did get to stop at the grocery store(I GOT GARLIC BREAD!!!), and we listened for the train again.
Friday was an easy run, or at least it was supposed to be. It was a not so fun surprise when we returned to the school only to find that one member of our team did not return. Better yet, the team had gone on a newer less well known trail that doesn’t connect to any of the others in the trail system. This was okay, except now we didn’t have even an idea as to where the kid was….. SO we had to send out three cars to check the roads for the goon. (yay). They were found rather quickly, thank goodness, and we were able to go on our way.
I was CELEBRATING Monday. We were supposed to have the Grinder(mostly for Ryan), but there was a surprise middle school meet that Smith had to put on so we had a negative split run instead. That was, as most running is, rather boring and uneventful. Most, if not all of our running enthusiasts found their way down Mascenic Hill and onto the relatively flat expanse of River Road (one of very few in New Ipswich). This would be all fine and dandy, a perfect place to do a Negative Split, except for the rather unappealing fact that to end your run you must find your way UP Mascenic Hill, and you have to do this faster than you ran down it. That’s not the only bad part of this adventure. River Road is notorious for speeding and general bad driving. With all the winding it does at the beginning, getting hit by a car seems like a very real possibility. If Mascenic Hill doesn’t kill you, River Road will :). 
There’s never much to say about long runs. All we do is run, and that’s all we did on the overcast Tuesday of October 4th. We found some crunchy dirt, and two vaguely off-putting men in the woods, who complimented our running ability and told us to stay on the main trail. As always, strides, yoga walks, and jump roping followed.
Workout Wednesday bestowed upon us, 300’s. It was, as it is and will forever be, rainy and damp for this dirt(mud) track endeavor. Making our way up to the track(barely), we undertook the standing version of the Dynamic Flexibility, choosing NOT to roll around in the soggy grass like a pig in mud. Following that disappointing display of self preservation(cowardliness), we ran 300 meter laps with 200 meter recoveries. We were encouraged to try and do two more reps of 300s than we did the first time, meaning somewhere between 10-16 (miserable) reps. We were then sent out on a 10 minute cool down and when we got back, we finished our D-Flex inside (like wimps)
Nothing ever, EVER, happens on race prep days. It’s always some form of sprinting sandwiched in between a warm up and a cooldown. This time it was strides instead of starts(no one knows why-Smith is unpredictable and weird).
To make up for the supreme uneventfulness of the days prior, Friday was enthralling. A little known motto of the Mascenic Cross Country team is, only in a playful and harmless sense, “We hate golf”. Maybe it’s the joking manner in which such a saying applies to our lives or the simple fact that we were all together, but either way, our mini-golf session at Twinkle Town was strangely enjoyable. It served too, as a friendly reminder as to why exactly we run. Mascenic team golf skills are lamentable to say the very least. More than one person landed their ball concerningly close to the road, and many of the team members found themselves dodging the aforementioned balls. As the games came to an end, so began our rather arduous trek to the Cheshire Fairgrounds where Monadnock’s night meet was taking place. Arriving just minutes too late for a course walk, the girls took off to run it themselves. Upon their return they donned their jerseys and their glow sticks, both of which glowed, and made their way to the start line.
There is much to be said about the races, and there is much know, but all such information is already out there and I have no desire to tell it, but it is to be noted that it was rather difficult to see on the hill that we ran, and that because of that Erin knocked over the cone. Also, we ran through a barn (the vibes were immaculate). Soon after the girls finished, the boys began their own evening race, glow stick adorned as well. Whatever happens here is boring and I do not remember it so… results were posted, go ham. As the moon rose,a dn time passed, the crowd gathered by the finish to hear the final speech and receive awards. Shirts were gifted to those in the top 10, and plaques were presented to the winning teams. So concludes Week 8 of Mascenic XC.
