Nationals

What can I say, it was awesome!! We were there in Cleveland for 4 days, the first day was the 1500m, which was interesting. These races are completely different from what im used to, these other girls I was racing were faster than me and had way more experiance, most of them have been skating for 5+ years to my 11 months!! So at the start I was VERY confused, because everyone started out slow in a bunch, everyone was hesitating to take lead and I got bumped and shoved half a dozen times by elbows, so I ended up last, .005 of a second off my PB. Day 2 was the 500m and I was so hungry that 54 or 55 sec. After Marty told me one time that I have the potential to skate low 50's or even high 40's Ive just been trying so hard for it. After this race, there is no doubt in my mind that someday soon I can break 50 seconds. I finished with 55.587, a PB by a whole second!!!

That day we had an AMAZING lunch/dinner at this place called the Mongolian Barbeque, where you pick out what you want for a stir-fry, then pick from millions of spices and sauces, give your food to the cooks and they put it on this round stove and give you a cool show, kind of like Hibachi. I Finally got Alaina (a young skater) to try some Calamari! She wanted to like it but I don't think she did...

Marty introduced me to some amazing skaters. Cherise Wilkins was very cool, very fun to watch. She signed my hoodie!! I also met Allison Baver, my favorite Elite skater since Torino. She was real, I dont know what I expected her to be like, but she was very nice to me and I have a new respect for her. I also met Jordan Malone, and another girl on the world team but I forgot her name (DOH!), they were both very nice people. I used to think these skaters were a huge deal, high and mighty like gods, but after meeting them, they are real, normal people who worked very hard to get to where they are now. What he showed me was that it is very possible for me to be one of them someday. Its not impossible bacause they were like me one time. This is why Marty is such an awesome coach! :D

The 3rd day was the 1000m. I have NEVER felt so ready for a race in my life. I was off the line first which surprised me...alot...and I led for what had to be the greatest 2 laps of my entire existance. I knew I was not going to place, but I was completely confident that I could stay with the pack the whole race. Then somethin' funky happened with my blades and I wiped out. That was ok with me though, I was probably the happiest girl on the face of the earth that day, it gave me so much confidence leading like that and feeling like I could finally keep up. I am allmost certain that the reason for the fall is because I was getting used to a new speed, it happens sometimes when Im skating faster.

Next year im skating for the win, better watch your back!


Craig and Dace got a picture with Apolo!












Rochester's 4 Masters National Champions!



Me after the races.

"The Way I See It"

If you have been to Starbucks you might have noticed the quotes on the back of the coffee cups. I do not drink coffee but I got a hot chocolate there once and the quote really made me take a step back and think.

The Way I See It #190
"If I have given my all and still do not win, I haven’t lost. Others might remember winning or losing; I remember the journey."
-- Apolo Anton Ohno
Five-time Olympic medalist.

It did catch my eye because it is from Apolo Ohno, but every word he said is true and should be taken to heart by every athlete. If you can push your limits and walk away and say "I've done my best", you've gotten that much better. Ohno didnt get this far by taking an easy win.

IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLY TIME!!!

Ok. I bet I got you wondering. On thursday practice, we did an interval workout like allways. When you lap someone and need to pass them, you're supposed to yell "TRACK!" but this time I was completely exhausted and out of breath so my "TRACK!" was more like "ughtrackkkhhhhhh...". So my group (we are split into 2 groups that go one at a time) decided that it would be more fun to yell "PEANUT BUTTER!" and as confirmation the person being passed would yell "JELLY!". So as I got ready to make a pass on Steph, the coach was like "Ok Liz, yell track!" so I was like "PEANUT BUTTER!!" and she was like "JELLY!". It was HILARIOUS! The coach and the other group werent in on it so they were like "wtf, peanut butter??".

Just for backround info, I sing this song before races to get pumped, Rob helps. I'll find him in the heat box and i'll say "Guess what time it is?!" and he'll say "It's peanut butter jelly time!!" and then I made up a stupid dance for it that really gets the muscles warmed up. It's a strange dance though, mostly flailing the arms because it's too hard to dance with skates on. XD

This is REAL X-C.

Over the weekend I ran the Freezeroo 8 Mile race with Tom, Rob, and Leslie, who were nice enough to pace me the whole way since 8 miles is the longest ive EVER run. EVER. By half a mile. :D The weather was nasty. The race definatly deserved its Freezeroo title. It was cold and VERY windy. There was one long stretch of road right next to the lake, where the wind was blowing up snow in our faces and it was hard to see, we were drafting off eachother but it didnt do much good.

We were running on drifts of snow, it was like taking 2 steps foward and one back every time! We were running in a pack most of the race, probably up untill the 6 mile mark where Tom and Rob broke away and Leslie and me ran together untill the end. I ended up finishing in 1:52:02. You won't believe what the lead guy ran, he finished in something like 43 minutes!!! CRAZY good. I met him at the end, hes a nice guy, turns out he's friends with my XC coach. Man, hot chocolate never tasted so good.

(Leslie and me finishing)

Cuse

I went to the Syracuse meet yesterday, it wasnt that fun. Mostly because I was sick. Yup. Still sick from Lake Placid, even with the gallons of Zicam. The rink was smaller than normal too. It was a good day for Eleanor from syracuse though, she made the qualifying time for the america cup next year!!! WAY TO GO!! She will be training with us for a couple weeks over the summer, shes thinking of going to college here so she can train with a good team. I wasnt joking when I said RSST was the best arround! Im excited, Nationals is creeping ever closer!! Not only do I get to skate with really good skaters and improve my technique, I get to see Cherise Wilkins skate!! She is part of the RSST but shes beentraining in Colorado and Marquette and is now competing in the World Cup in the Netherlands and Hungary. I wonder what it takes to be that fast? Well, Im off to mentally prepare for next weeks Freezeroo 8 mile race....*hack* *cough*