Breezy Jordan ’09 led the race at Choate this past Saturday, finishing with a time of 19:48 and breaking the course record. Said Jordan of her race, “The course was really tough. It was great to have my teammates nearby to help me keep running and maintain the pace. It was a great race.” It certainly was a great race. Choate recently relocated its course, changing the distance from a relatively flat 2.9 miles to a hilly three miles, which is different from the typical 3.1-mile (5K) course. The change took the runners by surprise on arrival, but they succeeded nonetheless. The new route followed a gravel-strewn path, looping twice around a field and through a wooded area. The course introduced an extremely steep, long and challenging hill that the racers ran up once during the first mile and again halfway through the second mile. This was by far the most difficult part of the course to run through. Even though the Choate team had the home course advantage, they did not stand much of a chance against the phenomenal Andover runners. The top three Andover girls sprinted the last stretch of grass toward the finish of the race and ended up taking first, second and third place overall. There was only one Choate runner who managed to stay with the top pack during the race. Toward the finish, she fell behind and ended up placing fourth overall. Andover’s team adapted well to the difficult hills and unstable footing, dominating their opponents. The girls allowed only two racers from Choate to place in the top ten. Taking very close second and third places with times of 19:48 were Berol Dewdney ’09 and Jen Downing ’08, separated from Jordan by mere milliseconds. Both finished strong and waited at the finish line with Jordan to encourage their teammates to push harder and congratulate them as they completed the race. Downing noted, “We knew going into the race that we would have to run the hill at a conservative pace the first time and then push the second and third miles. This was a smart move because it allowed us to widen the gap between the three of us and the first Choate girl. She stayed with us for the majority of the race but fell back in the last quarter mile.” Aubrey Zimmerling ’09 followed the first Choate finisher with a time of 20:09. Sara Ho ’08 finished next at 20:38, leading Anne Elder ’09 and Sarah Cohan ’08, who completed the course in 20:44 and 20:52, respectively. Georgia Norton ’09 observed, “The beastly hill that we had to run twice was awful! I was very happy with my race. The team ran well and everyone finished strong, which was great.” Abby Levene ’09, Abby King ’07, and Annie McDonough ’09 were unfortunately unable to run in this past race against Choate, but they should be racing again soon.
