RANKED THIRD IN THE NATION THIS MORNING

The national coaching poll came out this morning and The gators are now ranked 3rd in the NCAA, this has never happened before and it is predicted that on the past races and performances that we will podium at NCAAs this year which would be amazing!!!

SEC CHAMPIONS

WE WON SOUTH EASTERN CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIPS.... I CAME 2nd!!! I ran faster than I did at prenationals and the course was 50metres longer...sorry to blow my own trumpet but it was a very fun sucessful weekend. The GATORS came 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th and 9th...so all the scorers were in the top ten. we got 28 points and tennessee got 80, so we beat them by a good margin. We havnt won sec xc title for 12 years so was a very big deal. We will get a championship dinner with the athletic director and we will also get another nice SEC ring!!

Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

http://www.flotrack.org/videos/coverage/view_video/234565-2009-brooks-isu-pre-nationals/204629-florida-women-3rd-white-race-2009-prenats

PRE NATIONALS 2009

SO we headed to Indiana on thursday, stayed in the Hyatt at orlando airport that was very nice, then woke up early yesterday morning to head to terre Haute, Indiana. It is my third year coming to Pre nationals, first year was a disaster, wouldnt even be able to recall what position I came, last year when I came to florida is wasnt my strongest race of the season, but finished 62nd in around 21.30...somthing and 5th or 7th team.

This year we were in the white race, consisting of most of the teams we raced two weeks ago at Notre Dame. National champions washington, princeton were the two teams that beat us.

Well this year we all did amazing, I came 18th, which was a good improvement and we were the only team to get all 5 scorers in the top 30 out of all the teams. I was third scorer for the Gators. Stacey, 8th, Bec 9th, me 18th, gen 24th and julie 30th, the guys team did a lot better so was a great day. Im just on the plane headed back to orlando at the min, due to get back to gainesville at half midnight. its been a long day!! videos and photos to follow.

http://www.gatorvision.tv/newMediaPlayer/console.htm?type=vod&id=649073&oemid=6500

Aligator report

NOTRE DAME INVITATIONAL

RESULTS:

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nd/sports/c-xc/auto_pdf/09NDIBlue.pdf

Just on the flight on my way home from the notre dame invitational. Went really well. The gators ended up 3rd overal, behind NCAA champions U of Washington, and NCAA 5th placed Princeton. We were 5th last year and the competition was a lot stronger this year so was a good day. I finished 9th overall in 16.59, so a 5km PB. I think I was 38th last year, so was a big improvement, plus I had a lot left at the finish so feel i could have caught a few more people in the last 1km. I was second finisher for the gators. Stacey was 6th, i was 9th, bec decided she was going to race on the warm up, and ran relaxed for most of the race and finished 22nd, and gen placed 26th, with julie our 5th scorer in 41st I think. Was up against some of the best girls in the country so was a good day, and gives us a lot of hope for NCAA's this year, as we are looking to finish top 5 in the country. Will try and get some photos up.

Stayed in the wyndham hotel in chicago city centre last night, a great city. really reminded me of london. Did our long run this morning for 80minutes, felt really good, and been my best long run so far. Just on our way back to gainesville. Looking forward to a rest tomorrow.

2 blondes on a scooter with 3 rugs

so we are still trying to furnish our house, this weekend me and gen went searching for some dining chairs and a coffee table and a rug. we came back with 3 rugs, a dining table centre piece, which i have to say is very creative, and some place mats. We bought the rugs, one which was huge, and then realised that we have a scooter to take them home on. I think we managed to roll them pretty well, was only a few miles home. apart from the rug we sat on being awfully bristly, it went well.

The raccooons

mountain dew invitational

FIRST GATOR MEET OF THE YEAR-THE HOME MEET

Our first meet of the year was last friday. It happened to be the hottest weekend of the summer. We were racing on the friday evening because of the football game the saturday. It didnt cool down much and humidity must have been about 99.9% as i lost about a gallon of water just on the warmup. We were all looking in good shape. Stacey and Bec wearnt able to race because of injury and transcript problems. So that left the majority of us to still run. We all ran together for the first mile. hit 5.20, was a little quick, so people started dropping off. But I felt pretty good so just slowly started to move away. I felt bad for not running as a team the whole way. But I didnt feel like i was really pushing it that much, the last mile was tough but the golt course has some big hills down the far side that we go up, so that was probs why. I ended up finishing in 17.25. averaged about 5.30's. but ran on my own the last two miles. The team did great. Apart from ali falling on her face at the start all went really well.

Looking forward to the next- Notre Dame on the 3rd oct.

NEW HOUSE AND RACCOONS

So I moved into a new house right by the track. I am living with team mates gen and julie, and stacey who has just joined the team from england. We had been here a few days, finally got some seating and a bit of furniture and the house is looking great. Lovely real fire place and wooden bench swing outside. Plus a good driveway to get cars parked and make some money on gameday. After a few weeks we kept being waken up at night by some noises in the roof. There are squirrels everywhere but it sounded a lot larger than a squirrel. It actually sounded like a human could be in our attic, and every night it would make so much noise and drag a dead body around our loft. We were a little worried. We knew it couldnt be a rat or anything of that size. We googled it and came up with the theory of it being a raccoon. Well for the first week out landlord didnt believe us. Said it was just squirrels on the roof. We finally got the courage to take a quick look in the attic. when I say we, i dont mean me. There was no way I was going up there. We came face to face with two cute little faces. It was two baby raccoons about the size of kittens. We took photos and informed our landlord who was meant to deal with the problem. This didnt happen very soon. Our views went from wanted to capture the mother and her babies and release them into woods to wanting to go up there and shoot them ourselves. as 4 nights leading up to our first meet of the year with only a few hours a night of sleep was not fun. Eventually traps were set outside. The next morning we woke up to find a disgusting stinky possom. If people dont know what a possom is then please google it. They are diseased rat type things that are awfully ugly. FINALLY we caught the mother raccoon and another male. But no sign of the babies. A few days later we found them swinging from a tree in our garden, so they were caught and our landlord who is almost definently an animal rights activist drove them an hour to get goats milk???? not sure either??? On the friday we had the first meet of the year.

THE FIRST POST...

So ive started blogging in an attempt to keep in touch with everyone a little better. Just to let you all know what I'm up to and how uni and all my races and training are going. Hopefully I'll get some good photos from each of my races up also.

As you all know I was stuck in the 99% humidity and 100' heat all summer. I had to take two summer classes, as because I transferred it meant I was behind in terms of school work, as not all my credits transferred. At least I got some good training in. I had to rehab for my foot also, as have haglunds deformity in my left heel, and its still causing me some problems. Started back at uni at the end of august. so since then I have just been training very hard and studying very hard. Its still around 30-35' each day, but seems to be cooling down. Hopefully in time for my birthday (october 8th for all who forgot!!) I'm not going to be religious about it, but il just post on here after races and when I have time, or if something very exciting happens!!