my life as the paparazzi

my mom, ella, and i went to the university of maryland gym yesterday. there was a sign that said the indoor pool was closed on thursday and friday. as we walked up the stairs, we looked through the huge window to the indoor pool. there were lots of cameras and lights set up. my mom thought that they might be taking photos of the umd swimmers. we found it really strange that the athletes had to be hosed off in speedos before being photographed in front of a tile background... we guessed that they were probably going for the "just-out-of-the-pool" effect.

but, after running on the track and swimming in the outdoor pool, we took a closer look at the photo shoot. my mom and i were telling each other, "wow, he looks a lot like michael phelps! you know, with the long face and the broad shoulders." then, a man came up to us and said, "that's because it is michael phelps. he's shooting a head-and-shoulders commercial!"

of course, i went crazy with my mom's camera phone until it ran out of battery. today, when i went running again, i brought the real camera with me! here are some of the many photos that i took. with all of them in series, it's like a storyboard:















so, now you all know what michael phelps looks like when he takes a shower! this was my first "celebrity" sighting, and luckily i managed to get tons of pictures to commemorate it.

welcome to your off day

the banquet on friday marked the end of the cross country season. it seems like i got to whitman at just the right time, because the wwxc girls team rocked. the girls won first place at counties, regionals, AND states! as they say at whitman, "GO LADY VIKES!"

it took two hour practices every day except for sundays and even tendinitis in both of my ankles, but i improved so much. the first 5k i ever ran was in the indoor track at the university of maryland, where my mom works. i had been training for the cross country season and trying to run the distance. yeah... that took 37 minutes. you can see on my athletic profile how much i improved over the season. the last race i ran in was counties, and i ran it in 23:22.

i'm glad that all of that hard work paid off!

the coaches: coach hays and coach b

here are the races i ran in, just to summarize my season:

time trials (august 28)-- 17:07
2 miles- flat. grassy.

schools: whitman

i got spikes on "spike night," where people from whitman could buy shoes together for a discount. i wore them during the time trials! they look like this:
woodward relays at georgetown prep (september 7)-- 29:58
3 miles- rolling hills. grassy.

schools: whitman, sherwood, sidwell friends

i didn't want to run in this race since my ankles had been bothering me, but the coaches insisted. when i was running they felt fine, but they felt terrible afterwards. i later saw a doctor and he said it was tendinitis! i missed a bunch of practice, and five meets because of it. but, i still went to the meets to support the team.


tri-school meet (october 5)-- 26:19.17
3 miles-wooded trails. rolling hills.
(super cold, plus a lot of people got lost in the woods)

schools: whitman, wootton, walter johnson


fall classic at georgetown prep (october 16)-- 25:55
5000 meters-rolling hills. grassy.
(the hardest course EVER)

schools: 77 schools, and i don't plan on listing them all :)


montgomery county championships (october 23)--23:22
5000 meters- mostly flat. grass and bike path.
(one of my favorite courses!)

schools: 25 schools in the montgomery county area

the turn right before the finish line

the results: do you see my name? :) the numbers are the places

at the banquet, i got the "team cutie pie" paper plate award. it was bitter-sweet: bitter because it was such an amazing season (magical, as coach hays says), and sweet because i can finally go home once school ends!

the soggy socks go into the hamper...

if there is one thing that you get from this blog post, it should be this: walt whitman cross country is intense. i started a few weeks late, like some other people, since i was in new mexico. today was my first day of running with wwxc. i don't think i've ever sweated this much ever before in my life...

even though wwxc is no cuts, most of the members on the team are amazing runners. in fact, some newbies have already quit. i guess you have to be a pretty decent runner to survive this crazy running schedule.

people often say that running gets easier, and i suppose that this can be true for anything that you practice. i definitely believe in this concept: in middle school, i couldn't even run a mile without stopping... it felt like hours, even though it was less than 10 minutes (yeah, i know, pretty sad). i trained a bit before the cross country season, and can now run 3.1 miles without stopping! i'm not saying that i'm good, because i can't run a 5k much faster than 28 minutes. i think it's better, though, to achieve the distance before improving your time.

my only question: how much easier does this get??


go vikes!