About Me
My name is Fish; I ran for Boone High in Orlando; I am a follower of Christ. I'm an avid sarcastic but occasionally serious poster.
I recently signed with Georgia Tech. Oh, shut up. It's for engineering. You think I could even walk on with THESE times?
5K:17:28.99, flrunners.com Invitational, 9/28/06(Promise, no matter what teh profile says. You can look up results, it's some varsity race that wasn't ROC.)
1600:4:51.5 ht, TFA Quad
3200:10:26.71, Metro Conference Championships, 4/13/07
[April 20th, 2007, 02:28] A few hours ago, I ran the last race of my high school career, unless my coach decides that I need to run the 4x800 for the first time in three years. I'm never going to be a running legend at Boone, won't ever appear in the listings for best times, and can't say that I even made it past districts individually. Funny thing is that I don't care. Scratch that, I do. I worked my butt off to get even this far. I'm pretty sure the extent of my natural talent is very little. Had you told me after my first cross-country race (22:30) that I'd run over five minutes faster for the same distance and eventually run a 10:26, I'd have laughed at you. I would have loved to cap my career by running at regionals and getting slaughtered in the 3200.
Now I feel that I need to strike out on a campaign for making the advancement process more fair as well as improving my district. As it stands right now, the time I ran (about 10:35) would have placed easily in several other 4A districts, and that was ninth in my 4A-D4. Thus, I feel that it is imperative that the rules be changed such that the top three times in each district advance to the regional meet, and the next four district times also advance to the regional meet. This process would be repeated between regionals and states.
Additionally, I feel that the 10:35 was as fast as I could have gone considering the field. It is unacceptable that the meet administrators allow 40 people into a 1600 and 3200 field, so that the 8-10 runners who DO have a legitimate chance to qualify are fighting through a pack of runners who are in it for the sake of clogging up the first mile. I ran the first mile in 5:15 in lanes two and three, and by the time I could get any decent position, I had no shot to get on the leaders. The same thing happened in the mile, which I didn't run, but did watch. Limiting the number of actual entries to the top 16 previously run and proven times would eliminate or at least alleviate the problem of runners impeding others' progress during the race.
I understand that that portrays me as being elitist. I recognize that I am, at best, a good runner, and in the running scene, mediocrity incarnate. But it was my goal the entire season to qualify for regionals in the 3200, and going into the meet, Chris Hughes, Niko Votipka, and myself all could have had a decent shot. Our attempt at running even splits with a goal of about 10:10 was screwed by the lane-3 first mile. Let those who are capable of qualifying have the best chance at it, unimpeded by jokers in it for the glory of the 3:30 last 800.
Now that I have no more races to run, I figure that I'll start lobbying to have a good track installed at Boone. The Osceola schools are the only 4A-D4 schools that have rubber tracks, but they're the cheap ones. Heck, I ran in flats because it was like running on asphalt anyway. If I really wanted to complain about the meet, it would be that finals began 2 1/2 hours behind schedule, and the 4x400 was run after midnight. My mentality is that we have been among the most productive teams in Florida and certainly in the school, yet most of the athletic funds get routed away from the track and cross-country programs despite previous promised funds totaling $75,000. The entire distance team has shinsplints, and we run our home meets at The First Academy. With a rubber track, we could host home meets at home, host a district meet, and have the potential to expand our facilities into something at least half-decent. If you're all over that cause because you hate poorly-run meets, poor facilities, and underachieving sports that get all the money, join the revolution.
My next endeavors will be road races from 5K to half-marathons. Schooler, Seth, Storm, Bell, Squid, Bene, Jake, Scooter, and Garrett had better do big things, or I'll come back and beat them all in THEIR races.
I recently signed with Georgia Tech. Oh, shut up. It's for engineering. You think I could even walk on with THESE times?
5K:17:28.99, flrunners.com Invitational, 9/28/06(Promise, no matter what teh profile says. You can look up results, it's some varsity race that wasn't ROC.)
1600:4:51.5 ht, TFA Quad
3200:10:26.71, Metro Conference Championships, 4/13/07
[April 20th, 2007, 02:28] A few hours ago, I ran the last race of my high school career, unless my coach decides that I need to run the 4x800 for the first time in three years. I'm never going to be a running legend at Boone, won't ever appear in the listings for best times, and can't say that I even made it past districts individually. Funny thing is that I don't care. Scratch that, I do. I worked my butt off to get even this far. I'm pretty sure the extent of my natural talent is very little. Had you told me after my first cross-country race (22:30) that I'd run over five minutes faster for the same distance and eventually run a 10:26, I'd have laughed at you. I would have loved to cap my career by running at regionals and getting slaughtered in the 3200.
Now I feel that I need to strike out on a campaign for making the advancement process more fair as well as improving my district. As it stands right now, the time I ran (about 10:35) would have placed easily in several other 4A districts, and that was ninth in my 4A-D4. Thus, I feel that it is imperative that the rules be changed such that the top three times in each district advance to the regional meet, and the next four district times also advance to the regional meet. This process would be repeated between regionals and states.
Additionally, I feel that the 10:35 was as fast as I could have gone considering the field. It is unacceptable that the meet administrators allow 40 people into a 1600 and 3200 field, so that the 8-10 runners who DO have a legitimate chance to qualify are fighting through a pack of runners who are in it for the sake of clogging up the first mile. I ran the first mile in 5:15 in lanes two and three, and by the time I could get any decent position, I had no shot to get on the leaders. The same thing happened in the mile, which I didn't run, but did watch. Limiting the number of actual entries to the top 16 previously run and proven times would eliminate or at least alleviate the problem of runners impeding others' progress during the race.
I understand that that portrays me as being elitist. I recognize that I am, at best, a good runner, and in the running scene, mediocrity incarnate. But it was my goal the entire season to qualify for regionals in the 3200, and going into the meet, Chris Hughes, Niko Votipka, and myself all could have had a decent shot. Our attempt at running even splits with a goal of about 10:10 was screwed by the lane-3 first mile. Let those who are capable of qualifying have the best chance at it, unimpeded by jokers in it for the glory of the 3:30 last 800.
Now that I have no more races to run, I figure that I'll start lobbying to have a good track installed at Boone. The Osceola schools are the only 4A-D4 schools that have rubber tracks, but they're the cheap ones. Heck, I ran in flats because it was like running on asphalt anyway. If I really wanted to complain about the meet, it would be that finals began 2 1/2 hours behind schedule, and the 4x400 was run after midnight. My mentality is that we have been among the most productive teams in Florida and certainly in the school, yet most of the athletic funds get routed away from the track and cross-country programs despite previous promised funds totaling $75,000. The entire distance team has shinsplints, and we run our home meets at The First Academy. With a rubber track, we could host home meets at home, host a district meet, and have the potential to expand our facilities into something at least half-decent. If you're all over that cause because you hate poorly-run meets, poor facilities, and underachieving sports that get all the money, join the revolution.
My next endeavors will be road races from 5K to half-marathons. Schooler, Seth, Storm, Bell, Squid, Bene, Jake, Scooter, and Garrett had better do big things, or I'll come back and beat them all in THEIR races.