Aisling Cuffe's MileSplit.us journal 9/18/10
Hey fellow runners! I hope everyone’s season is going well. Just in case you don’t know me, I am Aisling Cuffe and I am from Cornwall, NY. I am a senior, and my birthday was just this past week!(and now I am 17). Heading into my senior year is quite a shock. Everything is final. There is no going back. I am one of those people that think about how everything they are doing is one of the last times in their lives, such as the first day of high school, handing in the last summer assignment, attending the last day of summer practice, and the last first day of practice (I could go on and on with this list, but I realize I am being a little too reluctant to let go of everything). This year is also very exciting as well. All of my school life, I have wanted to say that I am one of the oldest kids in the school district, and now I am. This year will go by so fast, but right now, June and graduation is not my focus. Cross Country is!
Summer is such a long time ago, that I am going to start with school practice as the beginning of my season (although I must make a shout-out to the Nike Elite Camp and Aim High Running Camp, just for the amazing experiences, and making my summer a lot of fun). While training is fun, I get anxious for the races after a while. The coming of the PTXC2 Invite was in my mind for a good few weeks. I really wanted to know what kind of 5K shape I was in, so I could use that time to pace my practices, instead of taking a wild guess with what pace I should be doing my mile-repeats at.
My training had been good leading up to the race, but not as solid as I would have liked (a few seconds off each split here and there can really annoy me, to the point where I don’t think I had a good workout, but in all honesty, there was never really any bad workouts). Thankfully, by the time the race came around, I knew what I had to do to get the time I was looking for (which was very vague, like low 17s, or just not slower than 17:30), and I did just that! There is nothing like having an extremely satisfying race. It can swing your entire mentality around (however, the same goes for a bad race, but only if you let it swing your mentality).
Other plusses to the meet included meeting Angel Piccirillo for the first time (and she is super nice!), and watching my younger sister win the JV race in a very exciting fashion. I had thought she had lost the race around the 2 mile mark, but all of a sudden, by the finishing area, she reeled the leader in, and outkicked her to win by 2 seconds. I was extremely happy for her, especially because it was her first varsity 5k.
After the race, my team and I went to Hershey Park. It was great weather for an amusement park, which is good, but it also means long lines. We didn’t get on very many rides, but my park-group and I hit all of the big rides, like Fahrenheit and The Storm Runner (two of the best rides I have ever been on). We left the park at 9pm to head home, but the boys’ team managed to buy me a birthday present (my birthday was that following Sunday): a 5lb bar of Hershey Chocolate. Just what I need (not… just kidding guys! It was an awesome gift, and it was very thoughtful). My coaches thought it was hilarious, but made sure first that I was not seriously going to eat it all. When 12am came on the bus ride home, they woke me up, and presented the gift. Everyone sang Happy Birthday to me, and I went back to sleep. During the normal hours of my birthday, I had a lot of English Homework, but I still found time here and there to enjoy my last birthday at home!
This past week was the true break-out week of my training. One fateful day, I started hitting all of my splits, successfully completing insane-sounding workouts, and yet I still felt good. This break-out week comes in all of my seasons, but training can be frustrating leading up to those practices knowing I haven’t come to them yet. But now that I have confidence from my training, and not just races, nothing can stop me (I hope)!
On a college note, my first official visit ever is this weekend, at Duke. I am looking forward to meeting all of the girls visiting with me, as well as the Duke runners and coaches. I am very excited, especially because I leave in a few hours for the plane. I hope all goes well!
Talk to you guys soon! See you later.
My friend, Mikayla, and I make the words “LAST” with our hands, as we realized this would be the last team amusement park trip for us, and it was our last time waiting on line for a ride as a group.
Me and my birthday present!
The picture after the ride of my park-buddies and I going down the Fahrenheit drop… I let go!
