Hey Everyone! It's Noah Perkins again from Seffner Christian. Thanks again to DyeStatFL.com for allowing me to post these blogs! I can't believe we're so far into the season! The Championship season is here, and I'm sure everyone is excited about that!

    In my last blog I mainly focused on summer training (which is REALLY important), and that is the subject that I think has helped my team and I get where we are now.  

    Anyway, we just blew past some HUGE meets that were extremely fun and exciting! The month of September always comes with its thrills for XC, but this year was just crazy! I mean, UF Mtn. Dew, FLRunners, and Pre-States all back to back to back? Like I said; crazy.

    But no worries, we all got through it! UF Mtn. Dew was the first really big meet that was on the list for our team. We were entered to compete in the 3A/4A division, which, when you look at the number of teams that were entered, was quite intimidating. Our guys ran pretty well under the circumstances, placing about halfway up the list as a team (which I though was pretty good for being a 1A team) and I placed 4th individually. This race got the ball rolling for the races the come.

    The next week we found ourselves at the FLRunners Invite to race against the best of the best. I was invited to the ROC as an individual, while my teammates had to stick to the invitational race. The goal going in was to hang with the top 5 guys, and to not lose contact like I did at UF. I stuck to the plan, and held out till around 800m to go, where I broke off from Steven Cross and Joshua Jacques and the remainder of the pack. It was a very close race, as I only nipped Cross by 1 second! But it was a RACE. There is nothing to describe how the crowd sounded coming across the finish line. Me, Cross and Jacques put on a show, and the spectators loved it! That's how I like to see us as XC runners. The course is the stage, and we are the performers.

    The show was back on the next week for Pre-States, only this time it was on the Cross Country Playground. Cross came back with a vengeance, and I knew that it was going to take a really well planned race in order to beat him with the mindset he was in. I came in with the same strategy in mind; proving that I can stick to the leaders. I tried to repeat the move that I made at Flunners, but rushed it, not taking The Wall into account. By the time we were at the top, there were four of us shoulder to shoulder. We all finished within a four-second gap, Cross, Adam Bradtmueller, Jacques, and myself: 15:21, 15:23, 15:24, and 15:25 in that order. Once again, we all put on a show! Props to you guys for having a great race! Hope you all do great in the State Series! See you all at Foot Locker South and beyond!

    So now that all of those monstrously large meets are behind us, my team and I are finally able to focus on the main part of the season: the State Series. Like I said in my first post, the team is looking for a podium finish at states. In the position we are at now, it is definitely possible! As an individual, I want to go for the State title; the 1A meet record, and maybe the ARP course record.  I am feeling a sub-15 effort coming on! It will take some hard work, but I think the team, and myself can hit those goals on the bulls-eye!

Well, I wish everyone the best of luck for the rest of the season! It's been a really good one sofar, so let's finish it off with lots of personal records, and maybe some course records as well!

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