We have a meet sheet for the Artichoke Invitational on Saturday, October 4.
This has always been a fun meet–well run and a short but interesting course. It has a serious hill which is something MVXC athletes understand well! Give yourself enough time to get a look at the course–and run the hay bales a couple of times during your warm up to get a feel for how you want to handle them. You do not have to hurdle them (Constantine!). Personally, I would always land one foot right on the middle of the haybale and push off, that worked for me, but you be you!
The Artichoke has four divisions for the boys, so we tried to spread out the athletes so we would field a competitive team in every division we entered, and that we would have Monta Vista athletes in each race who could work with each either and push/pull teammates to some great finishes–so please look carefully to see where you are entered. The freshman, frosh-soph, and JV races are not all that different and you will find competitors to race with at all levels in each one. If you want to be moved around to run with a particular training partner, please come see the coaches and we will talk to you about our thinking and see if you have some other ideas we had not considered.
Coach Flatow won his first varsity medal at an invitational in the Artichoke–this is a historic meet, continuously running since the Mesozoic Era, I think. You will get a kick out of this meet–it’s a lot of fun! Throw yourself into the spirit of the race–compete hard, run around after your race to cheer for your teammates, buy a shirt, eat a taco. It’s fun! The parents might be organizing an outing to the beach after, but organized or not, get some friends and get some beach time. And please, please, go find Coach Farnsworth after your race and tell him you had fun and tell him what you liked best about your day. Saying a proper thank you will help you remember what you liked best about your day, and help you remember how fortunate we all are to have events like the Artichoke Invitational in our lives.
