Millbrook senior Samantha George is making her first trip to Sane DIego for the Foot Locker Nationals this weekend, and she agreed to send along some of her thoughts and experiences. She , is in the process of wrapping up her final high-school season in spectacular fashion: after dominating on state meet day, she cranked out a 10:42 3200 at a tune-up, then followed it with the fastest time ever run by a North Carolina girl at McAlpine during the Foot Locker South Regional. Bound for NC State next year, Sammy nonetheless has a lot to accomplish, running-wise, before she graduates.
Meet Coverage
(From the MileSplit national portal)
Sammy's Athlete Profile
Thursday
After a long flight I finally landed in San Diego. We loaded up in vans to drive to the coronado hotel, which looked like a huge castle. It was sooo unbelievable! After we arrived we went into a room and got so much free stuff to last a while, then went for a run near the hotel. Later on in the day we had this great dinner prepared, then split up into our regions to make t shirts and have a scavenger hunt competion. Running around seeing the hotel lit up with christmas lights at night was like something you see in a fairy tale. I can't wait to see what's next tommorow!
Friday
So this morning we went to Balboa Park to get a preview of the Foot Locker course. As the buses unloaded the south team found their designated spot with tons of water just for us. Before we went for our course tour they had us practice our introductions for tommorow's race; it was definitely a cool feeling having your name called out over the load speaker! Finally it was time to run the course. I would say it lives up to its reputation of being a challange. It includes a few steep inclines to the steep downhill its definitely going to be a fun race.... After finishing up with that we had a ton of free time to do whatever we wanted. Some of the south girls decided to take an ice bath in the ocean! Later on they set up the delicious pasta dinner with endless amounts of food while elite athletes like Adam Goucher, Jen Rhines, Suzy Favor Hamilton, Carrie Tollefson, and Jorge Torres spoke and signed autographs for us. I am really looking foward to the race the next morning!
Saturday
Today was the big race day...as we lined up in order from 10th to first the announcer started to read out names and acheiments. Finally, when it was mine turn to go up, they had me stand while they read out everything I accomplished, and it was all on the big screen which pumped me up even more. After all the introductions, the gun finally went off. The first half mile or so I felt alright, not worried about my place. Then at the 1200 to mile marker I felt like i usually do at the end of a race! I was exausted but i knew i had to hold on so I tried to maintain my position and hopefully move up a little bit. I remember with 1k to go I was nearly walking up the last steep hill; it was the hardest race of my life. I ended up finishing 29th. I was a little disapointed with my race and wanted to finish a lot higher but I had a fun time going out there and I am so grateful to be given this opportunity to run with 39 of the best in the nation. After the race we had a lot of free time, so I decided to go swimming with a few others and even go in the freezing cold ocean too, even though it was december and colder and we had an ice cream sundae bar set up for us! Later that night we had the banquet, during which we were served a fancy four course dinner. Then they recognized the All-Americans and the winners, Molly Seidel and Edward Cheserek, which was really cool to see. After the banquet all the runners went to a dance, which was a lot of fun, then we all hung out as a group trying to make the most of our last moments in san diego. This trip was definitley the best experience of my life! I loved being able to get close with the south girls; we were all like a family at the end of the trip. I want to say thanks to all who supported me through the years, I wouldn't have been able to make it this far with out my supporters!
