Friday, July 9, 2010

Flight over the pond

Well my flight to Europe was delayed 2 hours from leaving philly. This meant not only did I sit on the plane for and extra 1.5 hours on to the 7+ it took to get there I was going to miss my conectiong flight in frankford. I knew things were going to well when everything fit magically into my pack without too much problems and my backpack was super light. I swear I've forgotten something big, but cannot figure out what :/ oh well I hope everything turns out alright if I have haha.

Watched two movies on the plane, Dear John and When In Rome. I tried to sleep but that was hard when all cramped up and too excited about going to Europe.

8:40 (Danish time on the 25th)
So we got in around 7:30, flight was supposed to board at 7:15 and leave at 7:45. No way to make that. So was given a new gate and that was it when I got off. Well turns out I had to go through customs which took ages and then security again! At security right before I was about to go through I remembered I had filled my nalgen up in Philly and then drank very little of it, so I had to chug a whole nalgen there or lose it. Of course I chuged it! I can't lose Nalgita!!! Thankfully I was pretty thirsty. Then got through and the metal detector went off so had to get searched. Guess what it was?! My Jeans button!!! Oh boy! Then i had to find my gate in this huge airport. So finally sitting at the gate with my ticket rebooked, pack sent through, and nagita still with me, so all is well. Oh well apart from the fact that my host family has no idea probably that I missed my flight. I feel so bad! But nothing I can do I guess.

10:00am
Finally in the air on the way to Copenhagen!!! Sitting next to a cool girl on the plan from the states. She just spent two weeks around Europe and flying home today. So sharing stories and such which is making this flight so much better! I really hope I can find my pack and the family fast when I get there. Oh well nothing I can do about being late now. Hopefully meeting up with holly also works out alright and Andrea.

~11am
Well finally made it! Found pack and Annette just fine as well :)

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Aspiring Champions Has Come To A Close

Well I had my last day at Aspiring Champions yesturday. It ended with a post testing to see how much I have improved since the begining of february. I have improved in everything greatly, especially my sprint endurance. I can now run a 40yd sprint in 5.5 seconds and a 300yd sprint in 58 seconds (vs my 70 when I started).
I have gained a lot more than just speed from this training though. I have realised that I have a lot more potential of being an amazing athlete than I thought I had. I also realised that few athletes that I have been exposed to that are my age train as hard as I do. However that does not mean they are not out there and i must keep training hard and building up my base training.
I want to thank Antonio for all he has done for me. Although we got off to a rocky start he turned out to be a great coach. And I'm probably in the best shape I've ever been in.
Thank you also to my mom for all the driving she had to do each week to get us to training. You are such an amazing mom and so supportive of everything that I do. Thank you so much!!!!

So now on to JWOC and WUOC to see if all this training has paid off!!

Friday, June 18, 2010

A Bittersweet Goodbye

I'm now writing as a High School graduate! The gradution ceremony for the first class of the Science Leadership Academy was this past Tuesday night at The Franklin Institute. It was in the main hall with the big statue of Ben Franklin. It was a wonderful ceremeony! Our comencment speaker was Dr. Steven Squiers who was the lead on the mars rovers. He gave a great talk about the definition of adventure and how we need to go out and have them. Very insparational! The we had two student speakers, Sharessa and Jerome. Along with Kaloni who played piano. We then go our diploma cases (had to go back on wednesday to get the actual diploma). I was the 4th one to get mine. It was hard to hold back the tears during all of this as it reminded you of all the amazing times we have had over the last four years. It did however make one excited for the future and all the new adventures to be had! I do want to thank SLA though for everything they have taught me, all the experiances they have given me, and all of the care, love, and friendships that were shared! I truely will miss you all and I can't wait to see what eveyone ends up doing and the great things SLA will keep doing!

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Winter Wonderland of 2010

If you were in the NorthEast today and happened to look out your window some might have found you could not for a layer of white was covering it, or if you could you found that everything was covered in a thick blanket of white snow. Today Philadelphia got hit by a Noreastern that dumped possibly over 20 inches of snow. It is hard to tell the official amount since there was a strong wind causing great drifting. This is the second major snow storm that Philly has experienced in about two months. The first one was a total waste for me since I was stuck in bed the whole time having just gotten my wisdom teeth out.
The whole city was shut down from the snow storm. SEPTA was totally down by the end of the day, and no buses at all. Plows could barely keep up with the falling snow. Because of all this there were not many people out and about, which is truly a shame! Dad and I went for a run along Kelly Drive and it was amazing! The trees were just magnificent with the snow laying on them. I'm so glad that dad got me to go out for the run.
Ellie also enjoyed the snow today. She wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I think she is used to the fact that snow is cold now, but normally she is still able to walk in it. We got so much snow this time it was above her head in most places of the backyard. She looked quite confused by it all, but enjoying it none the less.
Hopefully another snowy run will happen tomorrow!

Aspiring Champions

So it is 2010 and time for a new year of training! With the new year my mom found this place called Aspiring Champions out at king of prussa. It is a pretty cool place! Founded and run by TWO time Olympian Antonio Davis (he went to both the Atlanta and Sidney olympics for track) in order to train young athletes who want to be the best of the best. At first I was a bit worried about it and whether I was actually good enough to be there. I have now gone to two classes and I will say they have kicked my butt!! I'm still hurting from Tuesdays class and just had my first Friday class. The workouts are around two hours for the premiere level (the highest level and the one I'm in). We have done a lot of agility and sprinting stuff so far In the two classes. The trainers are hard but I think that is a good thing! It is nice also to be training with other teens who are serious about getting good. So we shale see how I'm doing at the end of may! I sure am excited I really so want to kick butt at JWOC this year!!!!

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Orienteering update!

So haven't posted an update in a while. A lot has happened as well. Where to begin is the question. Well we had a wonderful US championship in Wisconsin. It was very technical terrain with big crators and hard to relocate if you got lost. It was a place where the winner was the one who just messed up the least. I had a pretty good run after I got past the first two controls and got into the map. I have to say you get spoiled in international competitions when you get a warm up map inorder to get into the map before you even are on the clock.
I enjoyed this course a lot! You had to always be paying attention and focused. And although I felt slow my time wasn't horrible. I had a good enough run that I actually won the f- 20 age category!! That was a great feeling. I finally feel like I'm getting to really navigate at speed and more confident in my navigational skills. Also having so many of the senior team members saying well done and see they were impressed was awesome. A real confidance booster!
Next big thing has been my battle with Angelica in the DVOA rankings. We are less than 1.5 points apart from eachother. Each meet we both have been racing hard so the other one doesn't beat us. One event I got her by 12 seconds! And then funny thing is I didn't feel like I was having a good run. Then the next week at the mid Atlantic champs she got me by 5 seconds!!! Closing the gap. So one more event of the year with 1.3ish points between us. We shale see what happens...
Next exciting thing was at the mid Atlantic champs DVOA put together a killer junior relay team. Sam lead off putting us into 5th after the first leg. I was next. I was able to catch the second place runner by control one and just held on to the 1 and 2 runners for the rest of the loop. I then handed off to greg who brought it home! We won by 30 seconds but a win!!! So proud of my team :)
So one more local event of the year.

Wrote awhile ago i thought I posted but guess I did not. Ops!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Hello 2010!

Happy New Year everyone!!

So I know I have been really bad about posting here since the summer. I'm sorry! A lot has been going on and just have not had any time this fall. So I guess I need to do a quick update...

Ran Cross Country again this year. I placed 4th in the districts race so qualified for the PIAA State Championships again. Had a much better race there this year, and even had two teammates running as well!!

The college search. Boy oh boy has this been an adventure. I'm applying to 9 schools which are all over the place. I have gotten 7 of the applications in and working hard on the last two. I have realized I'm not sure if I want to do Chemical or Mechanical engineering but I want to save the world! Actually that isn't totally true I have found the most perfect course at Edinburgh University in Scotland. It is called Engineering for Sustainable Energy. I had a wonderful conversation with the Head of Mechanical Engineering at the University and he has me hooked. It is a combination of Mechanical and Electrical engineering working with different energy types and then ways of making power grids more efficient. If you make a ton of power and have no way of getting it to the people what good is it? Next year will be the first year they are having it. YAY for another pioneering step. I have actually gotten a conditional for the course so it all comes down to my SAT scores now. I need 600 minimum in everything. That means 600's in the 3 sections of the regular test and 600's in both the Physics and Math Level 2 subject tests. So wish me luck!

On the training front. Well I have been a bit crazy this fall. Along with all my Cross Country races and Orienteering events I have run 3 half marathons in the last 4 months. Two of them were road races, The Philly Distance Run and the Philadelphia Half Marathon. Both of them went well. My time goal was 1:45 for both. I sadly did not get that but on the second one I got close with a 1:49. The last half marathon was a wonderful course put together by Tom Overbough and DVOA at Fair Hill. I had a wonderful run around in the woods for 2hrs and 33mins. And according to the garmins I was wearing (yes two testing them more to come later hopefully) I ran about 15ish miles.

After that I had the joy of getting all 4 of my wisdom teeth out! That was painful! I was out for at least 4 days and still not feeling myself after that. They are feeling much better now and I'm back to eating. I lost almost 10 pounds from not being able to eat for almost a week. There was a scare for a bit that I wasn't going to be able to eat my birthday cake or go ice skating but both happened!

So I'm now 18. I had a wonderful 18th birthday on Christmas eve spent with my family and our family friends the Pews. My mom made wonderful Carrabian soup (my tradition) and then we went ice skating. I had a wonderful time. It is scary to think now though that I can vote (sent in my registration already), Sign my own wavers, get drafted, and even drink in some countries. I'm looking forward to a great 18th year of life! However 2010 is going to have a hard time topping 2009.

A look back on 2009:
* Competed at JWOC for the first time
* Went to the Bright Green Youth conference in Denmark
* Made it to XC States yet again
* Became US Orienteering Champion in F-20
* Completed 3 half marathons
* Applied to College (or well almost all of them)
* Ranked 14th in F-21+ in the USOF rankings (and yet not ranked in my own f-18 or junior f-20)
* Ranked 2nd female in DVOA's Rankings and 1st in F-18 & under category.

and that is just from the summer haven't even gone back to the beginning of the year. I had a wonderful 2009! So hope 2010 can create another great list at the end of the year!!!