Run Michele, Run

Michele finished 3rd in her age group today at the Shriners 5K, Way to go Michele!

We Care Twin Cities Half Marathon

Michele ran a 10K today alongside the participants of the We Care Twin Cities Half Marathon. Pictured with her is her good friend Tara who took part in the half marathon:

This is a shot of Michele as she crosses the starting line. That smile makes me wonder if she knows there is more than an hour's worth of running still ahead of her:

Amazingly enough, she crossed the finish line with the same smile. I'll never understand runners.

Cross Country - Meet #4

 

September 1st found us in East Peoria for the second Cross Country Invitational this season. As summarized on the Parkside website, Parkside continued its pattern of dominance:

"For the first time in program history the boy's team scored a perfect 15 points in an invitational. We also placed seven runners in the top eight of the race. Logan A., Logan D., Peyton, Caleb, Eric, Taylor and River had an impressive 22 second split for their pack. The girl's team finished in second place (two points out of 1st) and was led by 2nd place finisher Brooke who ran the all-time course record for a PJHS girl. Rounding out the top seven were Hannah, Bailey, Amy, Michaella, Lexi and Kelsey. Alex A. and Brie won the open races. Winning open medals were Baylor, Tyler, Blake, Brandon, Justin, Pete, Tyler, Mike, Mason, Evan, J.D., Megan, Bekka, Rachel, Emily and Tyraina. Running PR's were Reece, Steven, Reid, Jonathon, Riley, Mitch, J.T., Alex H., Kyle, Kelli, Heather, Demi, Shayna, Kayla, Taylor, Ellie, Emily and Allie."

Michele sets her watch as the runners line up.

 

Chiddix's Carly Pederson breaks the course record by 42 seconds with a time of 11:40 to place first in the girl's varsity race.

 

Here's another angle of Carly finishing, and if you look close off to the left, there's a funny looking guy taking pictures by the finish line. Hey wait a minute, that's me!

 

Parkside's Brooke places second in girl's varsity race.

 

Boys varsity off the start.

 

Logan Abeling takes first for Parkside.

 

Second went to Logan D.

 

Peyton, Caleb and Eric finish out the top five giving Parkside a perfect score of 15.

 

Michele looks on alongside John and Susan Goodman.

 

Brie Hines finishes strong in the open race.

 

A few more shots from the girls open, you can see the determination in many of these girls faces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The boys open race starts with Alex near the middle.

 

Alex working around the outside of a large group.

 

Justin climbs the big hill.

 

Tyler and Evan as they reach the top of the big climb.

 

Reed approaches the top.

 

Alex right behind J.T.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alex heading down the final stretch.

 

Alex beams right after sharing the news with me that he had beat his prior personal record by 1 full minute.

 

The award ceremony.

 

Parkside athletes cheer as they are announced the winners of the meet.

 

Distance 2.08 miles, Alex's time 15:22

Cross Country - Meet #3

Our 3rd meet took place in Champaign on August 25th, where we competed against 29 schools. As with the prior 2 meets this year, Parkside dominated. Here is the writeup posted on the Parkside website:

The team had its most dominant performance in program history earning 28 out of 60 available medals. Logan Abeling and Brooke Gordon won the individual title in both varsity races. Alex Anderson won the open boys race and Kelsey Kinley was runner-up in the open girls race.

Here are the medal winners from Parkside for this event.

 

It was exciting to watch as over 500 athletes competed in 5 different running events. I took a lot of pictures and I would love to post them all, but I'm not sure the internet is big enough to absorb them, so I've condensed them down to a few dozen of the best. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fastest time for the girls came from a Chiddix student.

 

The fastest time for the boys came from a Parkside student.

 

Alex shares a laugh with a couple of his teammates.

 

Distance: 2.08 miles, Alex's time 16:19