The time is upon us

It starts with the Burlington County Open and then progresses from there. The rest of the meets this season have a little more importance than those at the start. There can be no regrets at this point. You must play the cards that have been dealt. Sometimes you may have that season where everything just seems to go right, and then there are those seasons that make turns that you never wanted to take. They say wisdom is learning from your mistakes and successes, but true wisdom s learning from other peoples mistakes and failures. At this point, there are those that are glad with what they did over the summer and then there are some that wish they had back July and August. Yet now is not the time for that.

Now is the time when those individuals that have that innate drive and desire to be varsity start racing beyond what they even thought was feasible. This is when the top seven enter a race running for the program, for their teammates, and most importantly for themselves. Who will be the one that steps up? Who will be the one that endures a little more pain than they thought they were willing to push through. Times don't matter at this point, but places do. How close are you to the next runner on the team? How do you approach practice, how competitive are you? all of these questions play into how well we are going to do over the next few weeks.

I have heard people say that you are only as good as your 5th runner, but I say you are only as good as your 7th and even the last girl on the JV team. You see it is everyone's attitude that will dictate how far the team is going to go this year. Not just the 7 girls that line up at the start of a varsity race, but every girl that show up and gives it their all at practice. So when I say the time is upon us, everyone has a job to do. whether it is updating your running log, showing up to practice with a smile, saying something encouraging to someone on the team that looks down, or even just blocking out those negative thoughts that creep into your mind before a hard practice.

When you line up on Friday to race at MillCreek park, be willing to hurt just a little more than you are use to. Be willing to get uncomfortable. Be willing to achieve something you thought you couldn't do. Now is the time to be daring.