This week's Castle Talk was about measuring the progress in reach our goals. This past week, 7th grader Casey Rappe has shown the maturity of a high school veteran by establishing challenging, but achievable goals and has worked hard and smart to achieve them. Our home course is slower than the only other 3000 Meter course we run all year, the one at the Nike Pre-National meet. Only three MS Panthers ran faster on our course than that one, the other two were by only 10 seconds or less. But Casey improved by an amazing 38 seconds! At the Nike Meet, he was our 12th boy runner. At Stevenson, he moved up to 10th. His fabulous race on our home course moved him all the way up to 7th! WOW! Casey really loves what he is doing and appears to be destined for success in the years to come!
When we talk about Panthers improving in a matter of weeks, Amber's accomplishments will be mentioned for years. After her first race of the season, Amber battled some injuries that kept her from racing. Then she managed a 3,000 Meter race at the Nike meet. Two weeks ago, we ran just 4,000 meters on a very easy course. Her time there translated to 33:33 pace for 5,000. This week, we raced on our home course, with much slower terrain. She ran 32:59 - averaging a faster pace than the short and easy the week before. Then the big day came at the George Fox XC Classic..a fast course with tons of others to race with. She chopped off not 1, not 2, but just over 3 minutes off of her time from 3 days before! Her 3:19 PR made her day, as well as the coaching staff's, others on the team and her whole family.