She’ll Get the Hang of it

Rarely have I met a young athlete who just loves to run as much as Dalton Kuhar (Scottsville, VA).  When you talk about running with Dalton, her face lights up and she smiles and beams with enthusiasm.  While Dalton has done a good bit of running, she hasn’t raced very much.  When her cross country season at the Fuqua School in Farmville, VA ended in late October, she eagerly started her preparation for the indoor season which her school does not compete in.  She trains alone every day.  She said her goal for her sophomore year was to break 13:00 for 2 miles.  She accomplished that the very first time she stepped to the line at the 2 mile at the Fork Union Indoor Invitational on January 12 at the Estes Athletic Center at Fork Union Military Academy.  Dalton toed the line with about 20 other athletes, ranging from state qualifiers to those who, like herself had never run a 2 mile race on the track.  Dalton’s plan was to run a near evenly paced race.  The plan went well, with Dalton slightly ahead of goal pace at half way.  But then Dalton found herself alone, running with a group of faster runners far ahead and a number of slower runners trailing.  For a couple laps, Dalton’s inexperience with racing on a small track with a large number of laps showed through.  With about 800 meters to go, Dalton regained her focus and confidence and ran for the finish line.  She kicked down the final straightaway, passing a couple athletes and pulling much closer to yet others to finish in a new PR of 12:57.  Dalton is capable of much faster as soon as she gets more experience racing and some more training under her belt.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 21st, 2008 at 6:03 pm and is filed under Results. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.