Lily Mourer and Bryce Reeburgh went to New Balance The NB Indoor Nationals is mainly a high school meet but they added a Junior High Mile. Lily and Bryce shared their experience with us. How did you qualify or get selected for the JH Mile? Lilly: I qualified for the junior high mile at the Colorado School of Mines indoor meet in Golden, Colorado with a time of 5:38. I was excited because I met my goal for that meet! And made it to NBNI with 7 seconds to spare. Bryce: At the Colorado state indoor meet at the Air Force Academy I took third and made my fastest PR yet with a time of 5:19. My coach sent in the information and I was only hoping that they would take the altitude difference in my time (the qualifying time was 5:15). They took a 15 second buffer time because of the altitude and I was seeded with a time of 5:04. I was accepted into the race the next night, right after an extremely hard indoor training session at School of Mines. Was this your first time competing in a national meet? Lilly: No, My first time competing in a national meet was at the USATF Junior Olympic outdoor track nationals in Kansas. I tried to go to nationals for cross country before Kansas but I was too slow to qualify. I only qualified for regionals in cross country because regionals were in Colorado and they let everyone go! I’ve grown a lot as a runner since I started a year and a half ago. I have only been in 2 now 3 national meets outdoor track in Kansas in the 3000 m, cross country in Florida, and NBIN. In Florida I got 37 place with a time of 14:54 4k XC and that was in December, 2017 I am proud of how far I have come. Bryce: No, I have actually competed in two national cross country championship events with USATF. First, in 2016 in Hoover, Alabama, and the second time was in 2017 in Tallahassee, Florida. Both required me to be in the top 25 at the regional meet, which was held first in Colorado Springs, and then in El Paso, Texas. Both of those qualifying races had required me to take a position in the top 25 at the state meets which were held first in Colorado Springs, and then in Parker. How were your nerves on race day? What were you thinking about when you stepped up to the line? Lilly: My nerves at the race were terrible! I felt sick and nervous. My legs felt heavy and I was halfway asleep (we had to arrive at the track at 5:30 am Denver time—also daylight savings started that morning so it felt like 4:30 am). But when I started running that all changed and I felt great! When I stepped on the start line I started 22 | MARCH/APRIL 2018
blake mourer