I would like to personnally
address any questions about my decision not to run track for MHS before rumors
and speculation have a chance to begin.
Over the past 3 years, since an injury-ridden sophomore
cross country season, I have worked very hard to get back to a level of being
competitive statewide. This has involved a multi-year plan with my off
season coaches and doing everything right...
getting in the miles and tough
workouts all through the winter, eating right, lots of crunches, push-ups and
pull-ups, and a solid 8 hours of sleep every night. I have been able to
work my way up to 60 miles per week, workouts such as 20 x 400 with
45 sec rest, 28 x 200 on/200 off, 5 x mile ending in 5:35,
and 15 mile long runs. This has paid off for me with an improvement in my
3200m from 12:28 to 11:48 to 11:12 and already to 11:05 indoors this year.
Other than a somewhat disappointing cross country season this past fall, I've
been very happy with the results and progression. I feel that given my
11:05 recently, in the right race, under the right conditions and with the
right competition I have a good shot at Rachel Buser's
state record of 10:57.
It is easy to see that my training is very different, mostly
in volume, from what many of the girls statewide and on my team are doing. This
puts me in a situation where as I start the season with my team, I either have
to go backwards in my training
or require special attention from
my coach in terms of running more mileage, different workouts, longer runs,
many runs on my own, etc. Coach Patti's coaching philosophy is such that
everyone is treated the same and no one gets special attention. I
feel that he had gone out of his
way to accomodate me last cross country season and
even moreso this track season by letting me train on
my own for the first weeks of the season and to run the National Scholastic
Indoor Track Championships in New
this season. I will race
where I can, hopefully some of the post season national championships should I
qualify, and prepare for my future running career.
This was a very tough decision from both a team and
individual goals perspective. I do understand that many will feel that I am
letting my team down. I feel that if I were to run
"for the team", I'd be compromising what I feel is right for me and
would become very frustrated which would not only bring down my performances
but would also cause problems within the team. I do wish my team complete
success this season and into the future and am as supportive of them as I can
be.
Individually, it is hard to give up another shot at a state
title and Holly Hunter's 11:09 state meet record. These are things you only
have one chance to achieve. I will also miss the oppurtunity
to race against the ever improving group of competitors I've grown up with;
Keri is a tremendous talent and is always there when it counts, Amber is
working harder than ever and after missing last season is anxious to race, Kaylyn will have another shot at the 1600m this season and
will be a threat at 3200m if she decides to move up, Heather is also working
even harder than before and with a focus on track over soccer will be tougher
than ever this season in all distances from the 800m to 3200m. Though I beat
Rachel a couple times this indoor season, I don't count those as I know she
wasn't taking those races seriously. I was really looking forward to racing her
again after our great Harry Greene race last year. She has already established
herself as the greatest the state has ever seen at 3200m with her 10:57 at last
year's state meet. I wish all of them success this season and I can't wait to
watch some of their races.
I would like to publicly thank Coach Patti for all the time
he had invested in me since my freshman year and in the team for the past 4
years, for the team state championship titles in cross country, for my
individual state championship title and for
taking the team out of state to
major invitationals with great competition.
Best of luck to everyone this season,
Maria Dalzot