A Place in the Record Book

As mentioned previously, our 4x400 meter relay had to set the school record to qualify for Indoor Nationals in Johnson City, Tenn. We qualified with a time of 4:08.2. Well, not to brag or anything, but we finished 19 of 23 in a time of 4:05. That time broke our own record by three seconds. In addition to that, and to make it even more impressive, our alternate ran.
Our normal anchor leg, Ashlee Miller, participated in the pentathalon, the long jump, and the high jump. So, it would be too much for her to also run the 4x400 meter relay. Regan Boyer stepped up and ran. The order was rearranged and I was moved to the anchor leg. I was petrified.
Instead of having the heats separated from fastest to slowest they were evenly distributed. This meant that all the girls in our heat were amazing runners. I didn't know it at the time, but the slowest girl in my heat, besides me, ran around a 56 second 400 meters (that is phenomenal). As we stripped off our sweats I also began to realize that I was not buff enough to be in this race. Most of the teams we were competing against were all-star runners with amazing natural talent. Our team from small-town Kansas was simply a group of hard working girls.
Needless to say, even though we didn't make it to finals, we were extremely proud of ourselves. It was a successful mission.
Our first outdoor meet is this Saturday. It's here at Baker, so let's see all our wonderful supporters out there cheering.