El Niño, could you have waited six hours?
Monta Vista got in a soggy season opener–well, some of us did. The Willow Glen Invitational, usually a solid meet to start the season, turned into a rainy mess by the end of the day, and the meet was called after the 800m race.
Up until then, despite the weather, we got some good races in. The rain came off and on but did not turn heavy until mid-afternoon. The 3200m runners and the high hurdlers had some nice windows of weather, and the 100m runners got off some good heats–the wind would gust and if you were lucky you ran in a heat with still air, some of us had wind in our faces.
Running like a scene from Pre
Race results are not posted yet (check back at Lynbrook later today and they should be posted) so I’m just going to mention a couple of races. Aravind Meyyappan got the honor of being the first MV athlete to get on the track for a race in 2016 with a nice race in the frosh-soph 3200m. Soon thereafter, Jeffrey Xu and Sanjana Borle followed with our first medals! Both Jeffrey and Sanjana ran with similar tactics, going out smart and under control, and making strong moves with 1200m to 800m left; tactics like this are brilliant and brave as this is the part of the race when many runners are feeling the pressure and want to back off the pace a bit. Jeffrey and Sanjana’s moves broke the hearts of their competitors and they came home with 3rd and 1st place medals!
Sanjana’s first place medal seemed to set the table for the frosh-soph girls, as they started scoring points. Cynthia Gong scored the third Monta Vista medal in the triple jump, and both Sabrina Hung and Annabel Li scored points in the 100m hurdles! Last I saw, the Monta Vista frosh-soph girls were in in the top six at the meet with some of our strong milers on deck.
And then the skies opened up.
I can’t tell you how frustrated your coach was! I know I can’t control the weather, but I want to give you all a great day every day. It was incredibly disappointing to have Saturday have the most rain that we have seen in a month. Yet…this team can always make me proud. Everyone I saw tried to be positive, even if disappointed. And so many of you wanted to run despite the weather! I was really impressed with Pallavi, Jeremy and Derek who hung in there are were ready to run the 300m hurdles no matter what, and screamed in frustration and disbelief when their event was cancelled–but still were able to laugh and be positive at the absurdity of the situation. Maddy, Paru, Namrata, and Sarah were all hanging around at the end ready to go puddle jumping and I am sure they would have run a mile hand-timed if that had been offered to them. Adam, Anjini, Morris, Jonathan, Risha, Reema and others all made the best of the situation with big smiles and big efforts. Our throwers–Aarohi, Ajay, Namir, and Annabel–were incredible, laughing at the challenge of throwing a wet disc and the muddy marks the shot would make on their necks.
You guys make me so proud! The truth is, days like this happen. It’s a long season, and their will be days when everything will come together perfectly. I believe that being positive on the tough and imperfect days makes you tougher and better able to capitalize on the days when things are perfect. The people that whine and complain on the bad days don’t really know what to do on the good days, and often have all sorts of internal pressure to be perfect, or they find other minor things that are imperfect; they get in the habit of whining and finding fault. The tougher and positive and resilient athletes–and people–just roll into the perfect days at full throttle and do well!
You all were great, you are great. I hope I made that clear to you on Saturday. If I didn’t, believe it now–I am truly proud of you.
So, first meet in the books. Check out the photos and the weather–it might not have been a great track day but you will have stories to tell and you can be proud of your resilience! This is still a long season and you have great days still to come–soon!
Last Race of the Day: Matthew Gong
Early Start
Sprinters and Jumpers
Hurdlers
Wet yet undaunted!
