University of Richmond Athletics
A Players' Perspective
09/05/2003 | Women's Basketball
How do the Spiders prepare to build upon last year's success? Araceli's weekly diary will provide some answers as she takes us to the weight room, the track, the dining hall, the campus, and finally - the court - with several other stops along the way.
It's A Players' Perspective
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Week 2...
Last week's big emphasis was "the mile." It was on everybody's mind. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to get us through the four laps fast enough. Only one person on our team beat her specified time.
Disappointing? Definitely, but not enough to bring us down. When we all finished we huddled and reassured each other that beating our mile times was something that we were going to work at together. After that, Coach also told us that we'd have to be out on the track by 7:00 the next morning for "extra conditioning" before our second mile test on Saturday morning. No one complained because it was obvious we could use a little extra running. Now all we had to worry about was Saturday morning's run.
Friday came slowly, and the first week of classes was over. Students in my classes were discussing their big Friday night plans. I was invited to hang out with a few different people, but to their surprise I passed up their invitations.
"I've got a big mile run tomorrow morning, so I'm just going to stay off my feet tonight," I informed them, although a little embarrassed, but they understood completely. My events for the evening were low key.
For dinner, Saona Chapman, Kate Flavin and I went to hang out at Cammy Desmond's house. Cammy graduated this past year from Richmond and she decided to join the Peace Corps for two years. It was our last night to hang out with her before she flew out to Micronesia, so we just relaxed, reminisced on last year and ate wonderful enchiladas that her mom cooked. After saying our "see you laters" to Cammy, we drove back to campus, and we each went back to our places, reminding each other to rest up for the mile.
When I got back to my dorm that Friday night, I had a message from men's basketball player, Mike Skrocki. The message read, "Hey, I've got the perfect thing for you to do tonight, so that you'll definitely make your mile tomorrow!!!" "Are you serious?" I thought, "What could Mike be talking about? Is he going to give me wings? New pump shoes?" I had no clue. I was anxious to find out what he meant, so I got a hold of him.
"Mike, what are you talking about?"
"I'm bringing over a movie that a bunch of us watched last year before we had to run our three miles. It will inspire you for the run, it'll work" he reassured me.
"Great idea" I told him, anxiously trying to figure out which movie he was going to bring over. He showed up with a movie called "Without Limits."
It's a great movie about a record-setting track star, Steve Prefontaine. His movie is definitely inspiring. I must have said, "Prefontaine is amazing" at least ten times during the movie.
My favorite quote from the movie is when Prefontaine says, "I'd like to work it out so that at the end, it's a pure guts race. If it is, I'm the only one who can win it." Now, the big difference between Steve Prefontaine and myself is that he was running four-minute miles and I needed to beat a 6:28 mile. Except he was so inspiring, that when the movie was over I yelled, "I'm going to run a four minute mile!"
"Whoa, slow down superstar," Mike said, "remember you have to beat your time next year."
"Great point."
So...did Steve Prefontaine come through on Saturday morning? Oh yes he did!!! I crossed that finish line with a 6:21 mark, beating Wednesday's time by thirteen seconds and last year's time by two seconds.
I can recall being very tired on the fourth lap. I didn't know how much longer it would be before I would hit the wall, but fortunately Sandie Walker, who's coming off a knee injury, started pacing me on the fourth lap. Seeing her run that fast is what kept me going. Being done with that mile was a great feeling of relief. Since I no longer had to think about the mile, I had Saturday night's plans to think about.
