|
|
ACCA's XC Competes at Shamrock
by Michelle Williams
|
September 19, 2009
Dear ACCA families,
As the team parent of the 2009-2010 Cross Country Team, I wanted to ask you to join me in my excitement about ACCA's first meet.
On our way to Decatur at 8:15 on Saturday morning, I felt certain the meet would be cancelled due to rain. On the cell phone, however, Mr. Edwards assured me that the meet director had not cancelled the meet. I have to admit I was a little disappointed in the prospects of trying to do this meet thing in the rain.
|  |
But we continued on to Shamrock Middle School and searched for an elusive parking space. After finally parking we all made our way down to the field in the back of the school where we were met with a festive yet rainy scene of hundreds gathered under canopies of all colors and umbrellas. Runners in their uniforms were warming up and walking the course preparing for their first race of the 2009-2010 season. The team was soon joined by the Rickman family who was kind enough to loan us their canopy for the day. We set up camp under the Rickman's green canopy and prepared for our first race. Our first race was the JV race. Consisting of 77 male and 51 female competitors, the JV runners ran a two mile course around tracks, fields and through woods. After the 2nd loop, the racers came sprinting down the hill sweat, rain and mudcovered to the finish line. All of the parents eagerly waited for their runner to emerge from the woods toward the finish line. I cannot express how exciting it was to see the ACCA jerseys coming down the hill.
After the completion of the JV race, about 150 junior runners assembled at the starting line for their race. On "go" the eager racers ran a 1.5 mile course again around tracks, fields and through woods. Again, we eagerly awaited the return of "our runners". As runners crossed the finish line, they received their place cards with huge smiles on their faces as they experienced the exhiliration of the completion of their race.
Standing in wet grass and mud, parents, coaches, and runners took pictures, shared congratulations and celebrated the first meet of the season.
Our runners for JV were Ethan Williams (10th grade) and Erin Williams (8th grade), and our runners for Juniors were Philip Carrenard (6th grade) and Barrett Rose (6th grade). With only 4 weeks of preparation (including a few rained out practices) all of our runners placed well. None of them anticipated how much fun a meet would be. Philip summed up his experience running his first race with the words"overwhelmingly fast", Barrett declared that it was "more fun than he thought it would be to run in the rain", and Erin Williams told me that she "cannot wait for the next meet". Ethan, the team captain, commented that it was "frankly hard and wet, but fun".
We would like to invite you to come to the next meet. It is to be held at the Clinton Nature Preserve in Douglasville. The meet begins at 9:00 and end around 12:00. At the last race the ACCA runners ran at 9:30 and 10:00. We really hope you can make it to one of the meets to cheer the ACCA team on! We promise it will be great fun.
Thank you so much to those who have donated items for meet camp. Ms. Ranwez has loaned the team a great cooler and a fold up table. Dr. Reilly has put together a first aid kit for the team. We still are in need of a canopy. Thanks to the Rickmans for bringing theirs to last week's meet. We are hoping to purchase our own ACCA canopy. They cost about $100 at Walmart. If you would like to pitch in a donation for the team tent, let me know.
Hope to see you at the races!
Michelle Williams
Click on a picture to see photo album...
   
Click here to see stories and pictures of other ACCA events.
|
|
