Sandburg Eagles Fly To Portland!
Having wrapped up a very magical 2014 Cross Country season at the Nike NXN national meet in Portland, I asked the seven Sandburg runners to answer a few questions regarding their experience.
As the only sophomore among the Eagle 7, Martin Skucas had a lot of pressure on himself this year. He certainly acquitted himself well, starting with his 45th place finish at the State Meet in a time of 15:05 - good for 5th on the team. At the Nike Regional in Terre Haute, IN, Martin ran 15:58 for 77th place. He was again the 5th team finisher at Nike NXN in Portland with a time of 16:45 and 127th place.
Here's what Martin had to say about the trip to Portland:
My favorite memory from NXN had to be walking up on the stage at the Tiger Woods center and into the “locker rooms” to see all the gear that Nike was giving us. Seeing the spikes and running shoes, along with the backpack, jacket and pants really made me feel like a professional runner. The best part though, was seeing that baby blue racing jersey with the white letters ORLAND PARK written across it. That was the best, to know that I’m representing a small school in the south suburbs of Illinois, on a national level.
The race was a difficult one, it was not how I intended it to go. We all tripped when the gun went off, and ended up getting buried. After the first few turns the packs started splitting and it was much easier to start getting into a rhythm. The end of the race was a pain like no other, your legs are heavy, but there are two hills left and a muddy straight away, and on top of all that, I end up tripping with about 20 feet to go.
Running against such great teams is definitely an honor. To be racing against a team that will eventually be called National Champions is really something I felt proud of.
The course set up was amazing, there wasn’t one thing you did not encounter: steep up hills, steep downhills, long uphills, long downhills, mud, running on slants, it was one of my favorite courses I’ve ever run on.
My funniest story from the trip would have to be when everyone was at the Tiger Woods center hanging out, there was one small stand making screen prints on the back of the Nike jackets for teams. In the very corner of that small stand, there was a worker handing out all kinds of spikes for the race the next day. They had 1/2 inch gold spikes, 1/2 inch red spikes, 1/8 inch black spikes, and many other colors. After me and Sean both got our first set of spikes, we both looked at each other and thought of a way to go back up and get another set of spikes. We ended up putting on different jackets, switching glasses, talking in different voices. I remember how hard it was not to laugh when the worker asked what colored spikes we wanted. We were laughing with each other the rest of the trip just about those spikes.
One person that I met was Matt Pereira. After we arrived in Oregon, we all got in the coach bus on the way to the hotel. I ended up sitting next to Matt since all the other seats were taken. I felt somewhat out of place to be sitting next to someone who took third at state and qualified to Nationals on their own, but it turns out that even the best runners are just like us. We laughed about how we both hated long interval workouts, or how bad it is to have to fall off the team to use the bathroom on a long run, and then have to catch back up to everyone. It was really nice to know that the people I was staying with all shared something in common with everyone else.