Business Trip

This past week I got to spend a couple of days in St. Louis, Missouri for a track meet! First of all, I cannot express how thankful I am for all of the opportunities that being a collegiate athlete has brought to my life. I have met so many amazing people and had so many experiences thanks to this amazing place, it is so special! So, this weekend a few of my teammates and I had qualified for a pretty prestigious track meet at Washington University in St. Louis. I never once thought that I would even be fast enough to go on these trips, let alone end up actually doing well at them! 

We left Ada on Wednesday night and drove five hours to Illinois and stayed the night in a hotel there. The next morning, Thursday, we got up and drove 90 more minutes to St. Louis! When we arrived there, we stopped for lunch at Panera. Fun fact, in Missouri Paneras are called the St. Louis Bread Company, because that is where they were first founded! Anyways, after we stopped at Panera we took a visit to the St. Louis zoo, because we

couldn't check in to our Airbnb until 4:00 p.m. The zoo is such a fun place, especially when you get to go with your coach and best friends! We didn't stay for too long because my race was later that evening, but we made the most of it! Once we could check into the house, we headed there to get some rest before heading to the track that evening. My teammate Ashley and I were scheduled to run the 10k at 9:40 that evening. So, after resting at the house for a while, we headed to campus to get ready to race! WashU has the most incredible campus ever, it is literally like walking through Hogwarts. AND their track is super nice, because this campus actually held the third ever Olympic Games! Ashley and I ran our race on Thursday night and it went so well! If you don't know anything about track, a 10k is 6.2 miles, or 25 laps around the outdoor track. It is the longest track event you can compete in in college, and somehow I love it! At this race, I ran a PR of almost a minute, with a time of 36:35. I know this means nothing to any of you, but that time moved me up in the national rankings, to 17th in the country! This is the highest I have ever been ranked nationally, and after this race I was just beaming with pride. It was something I never thought I'd be able to experience, especially after such a serious injury in the fall. It is so amazing what a lot of hard work, dedication, and positive thinking can do! 

Ashley and I were the only ones to race on Thursday night, the rest of my teammates who qualified for the meet were competing on Friday. It was late by the time Ashley and I finished racing and we all got back to the house, but by then we were completely exhausted and passed out until the next morning. Our coach made pancakes for breakfast for everyone, and after that we headed to the track for a day full of races! There were eight more of my teammates competing on Friday, but of course their races were all spread out in the day, so we were there from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. It was a long day, but a fun one indeed! We were so lucky with the weather too, it was 70 degrees and sunny all day which was so enjoyable! I love watching my teammates compete, and a few of them ended up having really good races too! After the last race was over though, we were all so exhausted and ready to go right to sleep when we got back to the house.

Saturday morning, we got up pretty early and did a long run around the city which was really nice, and a big change from the country roads in Ada! After we finished running we pretty much hit the road right away. As the exhaustion was hitting all of us, our first stop was obviously Starbucks! On the way out of town, we of course had to stop at the Gateway Arch, because how can you be in St. Louis without seeing that. Once we visited there though we were more than ready to get in the van and head home. It was certainly an amazing, successful and super fun trip, but at this point I was also the most exhausted I have ever been. We arrived back on campus here around 8 p.m., just in time for my boyfriend to pick me up and head home for Easter! I did in fact sleep the entire way to Columbus. All in all though it was such a wonderful experience, and I will continue to be thankful for all of the opportunities that running has in store for me!