House in the Woods

I am having a relaxing week hanging out at the Stanford runners’ house.  My teammates, Meghan Peyton and Matt Llano, and I usually wake up early in the morning and drive down to the Stanford campus to do a work-out or a recovery run.  For the rest of the day we read, sleep, and shop for groceries.  Meghan works on recruiting for Augsburg, Matt texts, and I try to learn techno dance footwork.  At night we usually play some hearts after dinner.

The three of us felt pretty uncomfortable the first day we showed up.  We didn’t know any of the runners well, and it was a Saturday evening when we met everyone, so they were having friends over.  I felt like I was intruding on their weekend fun, even though they were very welcoming.  Over the past week they have continued to be very friendly and accommodating hosts, and as we have gotten to know them a little bit better, we have had a lot of fun hanging out with them.  The runners, Jake Riley, Elliot Heath, Brenden Gregg, JT Sullivan, and triple jumper Whitney Lieher, have a beautiful house on a mountain side.  The house is tucked into a forest of redwood trees and wild flowers.  Thankfully, they have plenty of room, and were willing to take us in.

As for my race on Sunday, I’m in the second heat of the steeple.  I was a little disappointed at first.  I know I’m in good shape, and I believe I could be a competitor in the first heat.  After some reflection, I think the second heat will set me up well to run the Olympic Trials A standard.  There are a few other runners who are running at about 10:00 pace, so they will likely want to be on pace for the A standard.  Hopefully, we can be on pace without the huge pack of people that will likely be together in the first heat.  The first heat would be good practice for the trials, but I have to worry about running a time first.

   Good news!  I just found out my boyfriend, track miler Ben Blankenship, is going to come out for the race.  He has a little business to do while out here, but he will also be cheering for me.  My dad and Uncle will also be out here.  I’m excited to see everyone and for all the support.