Emma's Kokopelli JOXC Season

This year Emma decided that she wanted to try the Junior Olympic XC series with the Kokopelli Running Club she has been part of the last 2 years. She took a week off after middle school season ended and started right back up with Kokopelli and some of her friends. Her goals this season was to do well in State so that she would qualify for Regionals and then Nationals. She had a rocky start at the Parker Invitational where she ran her first 4K ever and had to figure out pacing for a longer race. It was at this race we realized that would need spikes for future meets. For the Kokopelli Invitational Emma was more focused and prepared and ran and amazing race, cutting almost 40 seconds from her time the previous race. She ran through mud and snow but that didn’t stop her from running fast. At the JOXC State meet in Lyons, CO Emma didn’t PR, but she still held onto a good time and a great overall place. Emma’s best races of the season were at Regionals in Albuquerque and Nationals in Madison. Mike, Madeline and I drove with Emma to Albuquerque for the Regional meet. The weather and elevation were absolutely perfect. She PR’d by 16 seconds, with a time of 15:31 and an 11th place finish. out of 121 runners. Her team also came in first and they were all awarded with medals for that. The girls were so excited that all of them qualified for the National meet. We took the entire family to support Emma at her National meet in Madison, WI. The weather was extremely cold, with a high of 26F and a real feel of 13F during the race. It truly was an impressive race to watch as somehow her legs just moved faster than she had ever run before despite the cold. She PR’d again but this time by over 30 seconds, with a time of 14:55 and a 29th place finish out of 316 runners. Her pace was a flat 6:00 per mile! Her age group girls team took place once more. All of her hard work throughout the season paid off and we were all so glad we could be there to witness it, along with Aunt Kim, Uncle Al and cousin Haley. 


PARKER INVITATIONAL
PARKER HS
4K - 16:33.79 (7th out of 54)
OCTOBER 12, 2019

This was Emma's first race longer than 1.5 miles and she was pretty nervous.  It does help that she is now on the same team as some of her friends who are in different middle schools and with whom she was competing against during the middle school season.  She loves being able to run with Bethany, Jade and Eliza.  Those four girls are quite the strong group of runners.  We got there quite early so that she could run part of the course with Bethany.  It was so cold when we got there but luckily it warmed up before the 13-14 girls race which started at 11:00am.  Emma's first half of the race was not her best.  She was way behind Jade, who she is normally running right behind, and she was positioned in 12th place.  I was a little worried until I saw her come down the last long stretch of the race.  She had moved into 7th place.  She looked strong and was right on the tail of the girl in 6th.  Clearly, this was a great race to learn how to pace herself for a 4K.  She finished the race in 16:33.79 which is a 6:39/mile pace.  Not too shabby for her first race of the JOXC season.
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KOKOPELLI INVITATIONAL
FOUNTAIN REGIONAL PARK
​4K - 15:47.75 (7th out of 48)
NOVEMBER 2, 2019

Emma' second meet was at the Kokopelli Invitational down in Fountain. Earlier in the week it had snowed so the kids ran the course during the week in preparation for the race. Luckily some of the snow had melted by race day. Emma ran in cross country spikes for the very first time at this meet. She was definitely more prepared to run a better race than the Parker meet a few weeks prior. Mike, Peter, and I cheered her on for this race. I went to the backside loop and Peter and Mike stayed closer to the start and finish. I was so impressed by how much she improved in this race. You could just see her strength as she was running. It was pretty marvelous to see. She improved by 46 seconds bringing her average pace to 6:21/mile. 

JOXC STATE MEET
LYONS, CO
4K - 15:56.86 (9th out of 68)
NOVEMBER 9, 2019

Mike, Madeline and I headed up to Lyons, CO to cheer on Emma at the JOXC State Meet. Emma was a little nervous for this meet and the weather was a lot warmer than the meet the previous week. She seemed to be more at ease when she was with her teammates. Mike and I divided and conquered the course. I went out further along the course and he stayed closer to the start and finish with Madeline. I could tell on the first loop of the course that this would be a tough course to PR on. Between the hilly switchbacks and the heat, it would be a tough race. She still ended up doing really well and finished only 9 second behind her PR. We couldn't have been prouder of Emma. 

JOXC REGIONAL MEET
ALBUQUERQUE, NM
4K - 15:31 (11th out of 121)
Girls 13-14 Team - First Place
NOVEMBER 16, 2019

We had a great time traveling to Albuquerque for Emma's Regional meet. Mike booked us a hotel at the Hyatt Tamaya Resort which was less than 2 miles from the course. We drove straight to the course and made it just in time for her to do the course run through with her team. Mike, Madeline and I ran just the first stretch and then we explored the course a bit and planned out where we would watch her the following day. Then we headed to the hotel and ate dinner at the restaurant there. The food was delicious, and it made Emma really happy. Afterwards we walked around outside on the resort grounds and made our way to the smores pit and enjoyed a complimentary smores. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening with Emma. The next day we got to sleep in because Emma's race wasn't until mid-day. We all had a fantastic breakfast and then headed on over to the course. Emma was super pumped for this race. An hour or so before the race Jean and Katrina Meehan came over to say hi and wish Emma good luck. It was really great to see such good friends. The weather was perfect, the course was rolling, and the elevation was low. Emma placed 11th with a time of 15:31 (6:14 mile/avg) and her age group girls team took 1st place!!! We are so proud of Emma for working so hard to get to this point in her running. We can’t wait to see her run at Nationals in Wisconsin.

​JOXC NATIONAL MEET
MADISON, WI
4K - 14:55 (29 out of 316)
Girls 13-14 Team - First Place
DECEMBER 14, 2019

We froze our little behinds watching Emma run at JOXC Nationals today in Madison, WI but we had the best time supporting our speedy little girl. Emma not only had her immediate family there but also her aunt Kim, Uncle Al, and cousin Haley and a family friend. Out of 316 total runners in the 13-14 girls age group, Emma came in 29th with a new PR of 14:55 for the 4K (6:00 avg mile split) OH MY GOSH how did she cut 36 seconds from her last time a few weeks ago? She amazes us. With a temp of 25F and a real feel of 14F Emma ran an extremely great race. Her Kokopelli girls 13-14 age group team came in 1st with their top girl coming in 1st individually. These girls are such a strong team and we have loved every minute watching them run this season. We are so excited to see how Emma's running progresses into HS next year. She is definitely a talented runner.