The Cup

Today all the area high school cross country teams competed in the 22nd annual Ragged Mountain Cup Invitational. The main race is a relay in which 4 members of a team each run 2 miles. As one runner finishes and another slaps her hand and takes off to run her own 2 miles. This continues until 4 runners have completed the course. The boys and girls ran together in the relay. WAHS boys won and MHS girls (Morgan's team!) won!

The next race is the Open Race in which all of the JV runners compete individually over the 2-mile course. The course is on a farm and involves some rolling hills - the runners follow long loopy S-curves over the mowed fields. It's a great course for spectating since we were able to see the runners at 1/4 mile, several points around the 1 mile, and at the finish. This was David's first experience watching a XC meet - he thought he should watch the start of the race - it is fun to watch the start - the runners all line up on a line and take off fast when the gun goes off. After that they remain a clump until about 1/4 mile when they start settling into their individual paces. I watched at the 1/4 point with my camera since I knew I couldn't possibly get a good photo at the start and get over to the 1/4 mile before the runners did! I knew if I missed the 1/4 mile I'd have to wait until she reached the mile mark to get a shot.

Here they are a little beyond the 1/4 mile point:

And a better view of most of the runners in the field:

Here's Morgan about halfway through the race and Katherine clapping for all the MHS runners:

And after rounding the curve to head back the other way:

She looks pretty determined:

OK! Here she comes up the hill to the finish. This is a tough finish because the straightaway is so long and uphill.

Pulling away from her pack:
The kick:

Is that a smile?