Taking a Trip to States

I will be making the trip up to the state championships at Hershey this weekend for perhaps the final time. If anyone wants to meet up, talk track, just meet the man behind the posts feel free to give me a call or text or something. My name is Jarrett Felix and my number is 215-450-1099. I am 20 years old and I hopefully don't sound like a child predator for making posts like this. I know there are at least a few parents out there who are readers so this meet up chance applies to you to if you feel you want to talk to the guy posting up some of the things your kids are reading or whatever. I'm planning on wearing some Muhlenberg gear, I'm a Junior here and a Co-Captain of the Cross Country team so if you want to talk to Muhlenberg also feel free. And I have a facebook if you want to facebook stalk what I look like. Again, not trying to be creepy, just trying to be accessible to the readers. Hopefully, its a fun time and a cool race.

Now I am going to get sentimental for a moment.

I know he doesn't really read this blog anymore, because he is a focused man, but if he does, I hope he isn't too embarrassed by what I say.

What's really cool about getting older and following the sport for a while is watching kids improve and rise to the highest level, from relative obscurity to well known commodity. For me, I'm most excited about the state race because I get to see my good friend Francis Ferruzzi run in probably his last race of his High School career on Saturday. Francis and I went to high school together and we have done countless runs together over the years from the time he was a Freshman until now. I'd be lying if I said I knew right when I saw him that he would run 15:45 and break the school 3k record indoors. I still remember the first run anyone did with Francis and my friend Todd told us all, watch out for this kid he is going to be good. We didn't listen to Todd then (which was silly because the kid is a genius), but we should have.

At Paul Short, Francis took off on all of us older guys and led our pack through the first mile, a gutsy move for a Freshman at the biggest meet of his young career. He ended up running under 17 minutes, one of the only Freshman in our schools history to boast a mark like that. That was the moment when I knew he was something special. At Districts, Francis was the top Freshman in the race. He was a key part of our team's 10th place finish at the District meet after losing virtually our entire varsity team from the prior season. It was the last race that Francis and I ever ran together.

Francis and I are neighbors and we have grown over the years to become good friends. We have ran together so many times that is just habit. Whether it be hill work outs at 7 in the morning or late night long runs at 2 in the morning, it was a quality run. Over the years he has become faster and faster (especially relative to me), but I still often times think of him as that little freshman I met a few years back.

Since going off to college, I've missed a lot of races I really wish I could have been at, whether it was the Trojan Track Classic sophomore year or his PTFCA classic 3200m last year. Honestly, there are a lot of moments that I really regret missing, only able to hear about it through a short phone call before the cool down.

That's why this year, for his final race, there is no where else I would rather be than cheering for my friend on the brutal Hershey course. Our high school cross country career comes full circle this weekend at Hershey.

There are thousands of stories like ours this weekend at Hershey. Thousands of runners whose dreams are realized, whose friends and families are watching the final race of a high school career, filled with ups and downs (ironically much like the state's course).

So Saturday, remember the journey of how you arrived at this moment. Seize the power of the moment and run with it all the way through the final hill.

Because before you know it, you will be an old guy like me, sitting a computer screen, remembering the good old days of running with his best friend.

Good luck everybody.