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| Colorado state championships. Two first place finishes at the NXN Southwest Regional. Successive seventh place showings at NXN Finals. Division I recruits. For the past two years, the "Lambkins" of Fort Collins High School CO have embodied success at the highest level. Over the next nine weeks, assistant coach Phil Latter will be tracking the ups and downs, triumphs and challenges of the Fort Collins girls’ cross country team.
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the lambkin way | part 5
11.03.09
by Phil Latter, Special to DyeStat
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| Kirsten leads a junior varsity runner on her final Death Quest
Photo submitted by Phil Latter
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On the Eve of their Biggest Stage
Monday, October 26th – 3:15 P.M.
The first thing you notice about the team during the week of State? How small it is. Weeding out the junior varsity runners, the team has shrunk from seventy-plus runners to less than twenty, in one day. A few alternates are kept in case of injury or illness, but by now the teams are all but set in stone.
Bored of the classroom and intrigued by the opportunities the Colorado sun provides, Suppes has elected to have his gathering outside today. State Week is a time of meetings that narrow from the broad to the specific, encompassing everything from the ways the top contending teams like to run down to what each individual’s mile splits should be. Sitting outside on the solar heated cement, the team listens carefully as Suppes says he’s been waiting for five years to be able to say something. He builds it up, builds it up and then finally:
“Ladies, you need to run like the boys.”
Although the girls are ranked fifth in the country and the boys only received their first in-state ranking last week (10th), Suppes wants the girls to follow the boys’ lead?
As he talks more, the point becomes clear. The boys followed his direction to get out hard from the gun to establish position and settle in. The boys challenged the field to take the title from them. The boys laid everything on the line, and in the end triumphed where they had no business succeeding. To win a State title and eventually a coveted berth at Nike Cross Nationals, these are race time attributes that must shine forth. After psyching the runners up, Suppes directs them to head down to Edora Park for another round of Death Quests. One of the runners asks why.
“Have you ever noticed that there’s been a pattern to our success? Liberty Bell, Classical Academy – when you nailed those races, you’d done a Death Quest that Monday and a recovery workout on Wednesday. Why mess with that now? It just works.”
Though the conditions are pleasant, fewer Frisbee golfers are here than usual. Nonetheless, on the first Death Quest – which was asked to be a smoother, almost tempo run-paced effort – Kirsten is almost nailed with a flying disc. The challenges of the course are far more than errant flying objects, however, and one can quickly see who’s feeling great and who naturally despises this workout. All the runners start each interval together on the line to better simulate the start of the State meet, their arms driving forward to set themselves up for the first long hill.
After two solid efforts, Suppes offers the runners a chance to change gears and attack the Death Quest course that has wreaked such havoc on them all year. Kirsten and Erin get out the hardest, Kirsten’s raw speed and Erin’s innate endurance battling for supremacy. Marci pulls Taleah, Maddie, and Allie Suppes along with her in a chase pack, their eyes focused on rolling up the alternate boys who are still practicing. Aubree charges up the hill from the opposite side of the starting line, while Rachel continues her season-long tactic of working her way up from the back. It is a commanding performance.
Sweeping down the long hill and rounding into the second half of the pretzel shaped course, one sees just how great Kirsten is feeling. She is running on the shoulder of a boy who ran 16:29 for 3 miles this year, and she shows no signs of slowing down. Soon she is past him, driving ever forward. Erin is only a few seconds back, yet the gap seems immeasurable. When Kirsten is on a roll, there are simply few people in the state of Colorado who can keep up with her. Rachel has never been a fan of Death Quest, and though she, too, moves up through the field, it is obvious this is one workout where she might never feel too comfortable.
“I think that went about as well as it could have,” Suppes says on the drive back.
All agree. Now it’s just up to Mother Nature, a lady who’s been in the news quite a bit lately.
The Eye of Blizzard
Tuesday, October 27th – 3:30 p.m.
“The weather forecasters say we could get anywhere between 4 and 18 inches tonight,” Suppes says as yet another day’s meeting begins. State truly is the time to cover everything.
“That’s a pretty big range,” I say, visually demonstrating the gap. The team laughs from their perches on the desks and back windows of PE-1, the de facto meeting hall for the Fort Collins Cross Country team.
“I meant 8 to 14,” Suppes replies, laughing at his own gaffe. “Either way, we need to prepare for whatever is coming our way. Fossil Ridge [the State Meet host school] has already said they’re holding it no matter what.”
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| Marci, Maddie and Allie run together on their final Death Quest
Photo submitted by Phil Latter
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If there is a meeting day that showcases Suppes’s full repertoire, today is definitely it. While he certainly was animated and excited in the days leading up to the track state meet the previous May, there’s something about ownership of this team and its legacy that gets him fired up to a higher degree. Alternately intense and humorous, the thirty-five minute diatribe on everything from “running experts” to great Lambkin teams of the past is one to remember.
Perhaps nothing gets him more fired up than the “running experts.” At the 2005 Nike Team Nationals meet, Suppes had his boys team fired up to go out and take some chances as a nothing-to-lose underdog team. Instead, he found himself overwhelmed by the pre-race chatter that resulted from horrible weather conditions and a slick, muddy course.
“We do things our way here at Fort Collins. These are things I’ve experimented with and seen success with for years. I knew in my heart that the best strategy was for us to get to the front and establish position. People just don’t come back to you in weather like that. They don’t.
“But at the dinner that night, all these running experts and people like Dathan [Ritzenhein] and Alan Webb are saying this is the type of weather where you hang back and wait and really make a charge at the end. I had the boys all pumped out to go out to the front like crazy beforehand, and now we’re changing our plan less than 24 hours to the start. Only our number 7 guy still wanted to go out crazy hard. I’m thinking, He’s our number 7, why not?
“Sure enough, he went out with the leaders. But you know what? Even though he died, not too many people came back and got him. He got [third] on our team that day. What if the rest of our team had followed him? They were so ready that year.
“It’s the last time I ever listened to the experts.”
The Fort Collins way, then, is how things will be done. Suppes goes over the strategies he thinks would be ideal in each type of weather, whether to use spikes or flats, and reminds the girls once again that they need to have the same intensity as the boys.
“The weather can be a great equalizer,” he tells everyone. “It lets teams that have no business staying in the race stay there. That can be a dangerous thing.”
Exiting the meeting, I decide to run with the boys for their easy eight miles. It appears Suppes’s talk has worked, for the boys fall into one of the quicker recovery paces I’ve seen. With the school in sight, the first hint of rain begins. We know it won’t be going away any time soon. One of the senior boys turns to me.
“Looks like his meeting was five minutes too long.”
Falling into Ditches (Snow Day 1)
Wednesday, October 28th – 11:00 A.M.
The City of Fort Collins woke to six inches of snow on the ground. While not unusual, even in October, the forecast has made it sound like the storm will not be going anywhere for awhile. Bracing for the worst, the Poudre School District has cancelled classes.
Since it is against the law to practice on days school is cancelled, Suppes utilizes modern technology (read: Facebook) to contact most of the runners and inform them of the day’s workout. To best simulate the day’s intended recovery intervals, he asks each runner to throw in some 4 minute surges during their run.
For most of the team the run is cold but uneventful. Running north is by far the most perilous move one can make, the strong winds having a tendency to blow ice crystals straight into one’s eyes. While some runners were tempted by sledders, each still got their run in.
None had quite the experience of Aubree, however. Practicing as the first alternate, Aubree was running through foot deep snow on one of the canal paths east of town when a surprise visitor startled her. Rolling her up from behind was a biker yelling, “Get out of the way!” at the top of his lungs.
“So I had to jump out of the way,” Aubree told me later by e-mail. “I wasn’t too smart on my direction of jumping, and I accidently jumped into the [irrigation] ditch. It was not frozen, unfortunately, and it also had a lot of water in it. So I got soaking wet. [When I got home] I remembered that my mom never got rid of her treadmill. I felt pretty smart.”
Marci, too, experienced the joys of falling down. Her parents expressed concern that she would fall in the slick, snowy conditions, but Marci convinced them she’d be fine. After running on trails and jumping fallen trees at Colorado State’s Environmental Learning Center, Marci made it back to her driveway unscathed. Upon setting foot on it, she promptly fell over.
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| Author Phil Latter's house under 20 inches of snow - Photo submitted by Phil Latter
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By late afternoon Fossil Ridge High School had announced a revised schedule that would leave them more time to clear the State course and get it in closer to ideal shape. By then nearly a foot of snow was on the ground with more still falling. Soon a district-wide phone call informed everyone that school was going to be cancelled yet again. This would leave Suppes only one day’s time to see and prepare the teams before the state meet.
The task was becoming more daunting by the day.
Nineteen Inches
Thursday, October 29th – 11:00 A.M.
Cabin fever is a dangerous ailment. With nineteen inches of snow now on the ground, getting places has become markedly more difficult. Nonetheless, the girls opt to meet on their own at Denise’s house for a run.
Early in the morning, a major announcement comes – the Colorado State Cross Country Meet has been postponed for a week. While warmer weather is predicted for the end of the week, there is no probable way that all nineteen inches will be clear. Safety is an issue, too.
About ten years back Pueblo, Colorado, hosted the State Meet but did not cancel until immediately before a blizzard struck the town. Coach Suppes and his team were not able to turn around and head back north, so they were forced to bunker down. Losing power and stuck in a hotel, the team suffered through a miserable three day stretch of eating soup kitchen food and trying to stay warm. Though this year’s storm appears to have moved out by this point, history repeating itself is not something that interests Colorado cross country’s governing body.
Hoping to keep the runners strong in this newfound lull, Suppes makes some calls and changes the day’s run to a long one. Colorado is renowned for plowing their bike trails before their roads, so near optimal training grounds still abound, despite the three foot high drifts that pocket the region.
With all these outside distractions, the question beckons as to whether the team can maintain their focus long enough to accomplish their State goals.
Track Tempo
Friday, October 30th – 3:10 P.M.
“I’m going to let you take a vote,” Suppes says, standing in front of the group once again in PE-1. “Do you want to do the tempo run back and forth on the Power Trail and maybe beat up your legs a bit? Or do you want to try something a little different, stay on a soft surface, and have everything perfectly controlled on the track? “
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| Rachel as Tigger eating dinner while Taleah looks on at the Halloween party
Photo submitted by Phil Latter
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A smattering of hands go up for the unrelenting concrete Power Trail, but in the end the track wins. Discounting some accelerations, it will be the first time the team has run a workout on the track since last May. About 50 meters of the track are covered in snow – the rest is clear. The Colorado sun has returned today at full strength, melting nearly a foot of snow in the past three hours. The track has been one of its most thankful recipients.
Suppes is experimenting a bit today in ways beyond the track. He has designated today a “pairs workout,” placing comparable runners together and staggering their starting times. His goal is to have each group work together in a similar way to how they’ll flow together at State. Making each runner accountable for another, he hopes to have them push one another along.
Rachel alone has no designated “pace car,” but she is given the luxury of starting at the same time as the freshman boy alternates. Locked in behind their pack, she looks effortless clicking off six-minute miles. In the end, she outkicks two of them to finish second in her pack with a time of 18:01. Kirsten and Erin, meanwhile, are rolling right along at just over six minute pace, alternating leads for the first two miles. Kirsten then takes over, her superior speed devouring the rapidly thawing track.
Marci and Denise work together trying to pull Maddie along, but her swollen throat does her no favors and she comes off the track feeling nauseous at a mile and a half. While not an encouraging sign, Denise’s hamstring holding up well the entire run is. A little ways behind them, Taleah works well with Aubree, and Aubree even goes out of her way over the final 100 meters to encourage Taleah as she kicks in to the finish.
“That went about as well as I could have imagined,” Suppes says afterwards to his wife, high fiving the runners as they pass.
“They were supposed to run State in 24 hours,” she replies. “I would certainly hope they’d look good.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Suppes says, but the glow remains. Despite all the meteorological nonsense of the past week, the girls have lost not an ounce of concentration or focus.
Flaming Napkins
Saturday, October 31st – 3:30 P.M.
It seems that Suppes is a creature of habit. Even his no longer post-State Halloween party begins right at 3:30. This is not something they have taken lightly, either. Cobwebs and paper spiders adorn the ceiling and chandeliers. Gothic goblets are filled with a raspberry sherbet punch that comes out of a cauldron; a witch’s kettle of Gatorade sits on the opposite counter. All sorts of pumpkins and squash adorn the tables, next to caramel popcorn balls and jack o’ lantern Rice Krispy treats. A vampire known as Suppes greets all the visitors.
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| Vampire Suppes greets guests at his party on the day the State meet should have been run.
Photo submitted by Phil Latter
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Although the boys wear their usual street clothes, the girls and Suppes have gone almost all out in terms of attire. Cats are prominent as Rachel goes as Tigger from Winnie-the-Pooh, Aubree shows up as a tiger, and Kirsten comes in as a leopard. These cats strike fear into the hearts of the two grazing herbivores, Taleah and Erin, who both come dressed as zebras. Though Marci joins the party late, her unique costume catches the most attention. A pink gymnast’s leotard covered by a faux cheetah-skin vest, the costume continues to highlight all of Marci’s eccentricities.
While the snow ball attack and Silly String episode that occurred on the driveway would rate highly on most people’s radars, Denise clearly has the day’s shining moment. Sitting in the Suppes’s dining room with the whole team, everyone eating from heaping trays of pasta, a napkin Denise is holding catches fire. With the rapidly burning paper in her hand, she tries waving it side to side to put it out. The fanning action only increases the fire’s potency, however. Seconds from burning her hand, Denise tries dropping the napkin in one of the plastic goblets. There is no punch in any of them, so the fire rages on. Finally realizing she has no other options, Denise rips open a bottle of Gatorade and dumps it on the flaming napkin, a sticky puddle forming in the middle of the table from the splash. It is a moment the whole team will remember for a long time.
After dinner the team heads into the Suppes’s family room to watch a video that Bo Viger, Rachel’s father, has put together of the previous week’s race. Featuring good music and excellent camera work, the team gets to enjoy a great presentation of all their hard work. While some runners are embarrassed to see their strides heavy from fatigue and their faces contorted in agony, most are proud of the efforts they put out. A few parents are at the dinner, and they express pride in what their children have done running in this program.
While racing fast in a week’s time is still on their minds, as the runners and their families exit the house carrying caramel apples and Snickers bars, it is the call of Halloween that rings loudest.
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