On day 2 of the racewalks at Nationals four more TEAM members were hoping to emulate the Juniors success from the day before. Unfortunately the weather was the same as the day before, pouring rain and lightning. The rain had stopped by the time everyone started warming up but unfortunately the lightning was still striking. The race had to be postponed by 15 minutes but luckily for the athletes the temperature was cool and perfect for racing.
First up was the men. Leading the TEAM was Coach and still active athlete, Tim Seaman. With hopes to continue the winning streak of the TEAM, Tim started off in the lead pack and looked very comfortable with the pace. After a few kilometers Tim and John Nunn separated from the rest of the group and it looked like it was going to be a fight for first between these two men. Unfortunately for Tim, he received 2 red cards by 6km's and was forced to tell John that the judges decided that John was going to be the winner today and Tim had to slow down to avoid disqualification. Luckily Tim was well ahead of 3rd place that he was able to just keep an easy pace to maintain his 2nd place. Tim finished in an easy 1:33:10 in 2nd place.
Three minutes after the men took off, it was the women's turn. Representing the TEAM was Maria, Lauren and Katie. Time was not the goal today, the goal for the ladies was to race hard and to finish as high as possible. As usual, Teresa Vail took off going into the lead right from the gun trying to push the pace. Maria just stayed smart and walked with Joanne Dow trying to stay relaxed and comfortable for as long as possible so that she would have the strength to push when the time came. After 3km's Teresa started struggling and stepped off the course. Once Maria caught up to where Teresa was, Teresa jumped back into the race going with Maria and trying to give herself another chance to try and win this race. Unfortunately for Teresa but fortunately for Maria, it just wasnt Teresa's day and Teresa decided to step off the course for a 2nd and final time. At this point Maria was leading Joanne and it looked like as long as Maria could manage not to crash that she was going to be the winner. Maria held on and pushed to the end and won the event in her 2nd best time ever of 1:39:46, the clear winner by just over 3.5 minutes.
Coming in next for the TEAM was Lauren. Lauren started off in the lead of the 2nd pack of women. Lauren was definitely the strongest of the group and after a few laps it was just her and Oregonian Erin Gray. From about 5km's on Lauren led Erin Gray, pushing the pace and Erin just drafted off of Lauren the whole way. Lauren determined not to loose after doing all of the work and Erin doing nothing to help, Lauren kept pushing and trying to make Erin suffer. Lauren managed to drop Erin at around 16-17km's and pushed till the end. Lauren finished in an impressive 3rd place in a time of 1:44:37.
Katie rounded off the TEAM for the day completing her very first 20km's ever. She had never covered the distance in a workout or a race before but since Nationals was in her home state of Iowa, Katie was willing to take on the challenge. Katie smashed the challenge and walked a super strong race. She finished in 1:51:23 and even had a big negative split. She wasnt too far off of her 10km personal best in both of her splits, very impressive! She finished in 8th place, a great showing at her first Nationals.
You can watch our TEAM's strong performances here courtesy of Runnerspace.com
Awesome job TEAM as we came away with five medals! Next up for the TEAM will be the NACAC Track and Field Champonships where Lauren will be racing over 10,000m's in Miami, Florida.
Stay tuned!
TEAM
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