Arizona CC Journal Entry #3: Sherod Hardt

 Milesplit Arizona Cross Country Journals

Our fourth runner is Sherod Hardt from Queen Creek.  Sherod follows in the foot steps of two older sisters, both with multiple state championships and both went on to run at Arizona State.

During the 2008 cross country season Sherod placed 7th at the Nike Cross SW Regionals and qualified for Nationals but opted out to make a run at Foot Locker West placing 14th and just missing out on the top 10.  He is already having a great season winning the Scottsdale Running Company Invitational (in the rain) and traveling to California to win the Mustang Invitational.   

Sherod Hardt

(Sr., Queen Creek)

Journal Entry #3 (November 19, 2009)

Hey Guys it’s me Sherod, and I am writing to you from Utah this week as I am on a recruiting trip to BYU !!

 So the HS Cross season for AZ has officially ended as we had state this past weekend. Boy how the year has flown by.  I would first like to start off thanking Margot Kelly for all her work and efforts over the years. She is an amazing person, she gives us athletes so much acknowledgement and press, (more than anyone in the state!) and I just wanted to say “THANK YOU MARGOT!”  Oh and by the way if any of you ever have the chance to hang out with her, she has some amazing dance moves!

Onto my summary of Regionals and State: So, I ran in the 4A I Desert Sky regionals on Oct. 30 at Freestone park. It was a nice day and a fun and challenging course for a regional meet.. I ended up winning the race, pretty much using the race as a training session in preparation for the State Championships.  Our team took 4^th so my teammates also were able to join me at State which is always nice. I love those guys! They work hard and have defiantly improved! The average improvement on our team from last year was 1 ½ minutes faster for runners 2-7! WOW

The State meet took place this past weekend.  Lucky for me 4AI got the draw of the first race of the day! That is always nice as many of you know that AZ is still blazing hot in the afternoons. I was really hoping to win my first state championship, and I did! What a great feeling that is to be a State Champion. I had some pressure on me due to the fact that my sisters both won multiple State Championships and I had to keep up the tradition. Anyway, my plan was to run smart, as the course is tougher than it appears and to run fast! I ended up running a 15:32, which is faster than I ran last year, but not quite as fast as I was hoping for. Needless to say I was a little disappointed in my time, but the idea of being the State Champion made me feel a bit better.  Did I run smart? I think I did the first part of the race, but the last ½ mile or so I mentally let it get away from me a bit! It was still an accomplishment and something I can be proud of! 

I will be running Nike Southwest on November 21^st and am hoping for a top 5 finish and a possible trip to Portland or to Footlocker West! I guess that decision will have to be made when the time arrives!  I would just like to congratulate all the Cross Country runners in AZ on a great season. Your hard work and dedication has put Arizona on the map as a state that has some kids that can run! Great job, keep it up and remember…. The sky is the limit! Reach for your goals, work hard to achieve them and anything is possible!

~Sherod

Hey Everyone,

 

I hope that your Cross season is going well, it has been awhile since I last wrote so lets get started!  The season has gone by so fast, that it is amazing. We seriously only have 2 weeks until the state championships that is crazy. 

 

This past weekend I competed in the Mt. Sac Cross Country Invitational in Walnut, CA.  It was an amazing experience. The course is tough, the competition fierce and the atmosphere intense. With that said, I would have to say I think I performed pretty well. I finished 10th in the Individual Sweepstakes Race. There were 12 kids in that race alone that ran under 15 minutes. I ran a 14:55 and finished neck and neck with Steve! Steve mentioned that our times would have won the race the year that Jim Wamsley ran, and we would have been 4th last year. That tells me that the kids in the country are just getting better and better.  It was a lot of fun and a great experience as I feel it is a great opportunity to get on that monstrous course prior to the Foot lock race in early December.

 

In preparation for such a huge competition I try not to think about it too much. I think if you give too much thought or let it weigh on your mind, your body can use up energy that would be better used during the race. Don’t get me wrong, I get nervous, and I think about it a bit, but I don’t dwell on it. I try to get ample sleep, eat well and hydrate well! (My mom kills me with that!!) I have faith in what my coaches tell me to do, in my training and my fitness and with those things taken care of the race will usually take care of itself. 

 

The season has flown by as has the first half of my final year of High School.  I recently have taken 3 college visits! The first one was to UNC with Brian and Steve. It was a lot of fun and very exhausting.  We flew out right after we raced at the Twilight meet and came home on the following Monday. North Carolina is BEAUTIFUL.  The places to run there are second to none and the team was really cool as was Coach Watson.  Following my trip to UNC I went to Oklahoma State in Stillwater OK.  The flight there was quite interesting as I encountered my first real flight by myself, along with a flight that could not land in Tulsa due to weather so I had to go back to Dallas. This I think was a growing experience as I had to figure out how to catch a stand by flight etc.  Needless to say I flew into Witchita KS and Coach Lockhart came and picked me up there. I loved OSU, the coaches are so personable and the team needless to say is amazing! I got to watch them do a workout (WOW is all I can say about that!) and I got to do a couple runs there as well. There are a lot of really neat places to train there as well. My last visit was to the University of Arizona!! Yes, yes an instate visit. Coach Li is very nice and was a great host. The areas to train in Tucson are very nice as well (which was surprising to me) with a variety of terrain to train on.  The team was nice and it was fun to get to know them and hang out with them!

 

College visits are really fun, and it is interesting to get to meet a lot of new people. I think I have looked forward to this for a long time and so far it has been everything I thought it would be.  Don’t get me wrong it can feel a bit awkward at times but overall it is a great experience. I will take my final two visits after my season is over and I will let you know how those go!

 

With only two weeks left until state, I wish you all good luck this week with Regionals and next week with State! Do the little things, work hard, work smart and enjoy what is left of the season!

 

~Sherod

 

Entry #1 Introduction (Septeber 25, 2009)

Hello fellow cross country and track friends, my name is Sherod Hardt and I have been asked by the ever so lovely Margot Kelly to write journals this season about my cross country season.  I really don’t know how to begin, so I will start with a little introduction. As I have stated my name is Sherod Hardt, I am 18 years old  and I run CC for Queen Creek High School. I have been running CC and track since middle school.

Running wasn’t really an option, it was kinda a family thing that I fell into. I have 2 older sisters Whitney and Kari who both are runners so I just fell in with them. They both went to ASU to run following HS and I too plan to run collegially following HS as well ( however, I have no idea where) . My sisters have always been my inspiration. They have been examples to me as far as training goes, as far as school goes and as far a being just good overall people!  Both of my parents are my coaches and have coached me every day since I started running. People ask me if that drives me crazy…. I guess I would so NO, I really enjoy it. I love every opportunity I have to spend time with my family and as you can read, that is A LOT of  the time !

As I approach my final HS Cross Country season, I feel an overwhelming amount of excitement. The boys in our state have really raised the bar these past few years and I am looking forward to some real exciting and fun times.  I feel like I got started with my summer training rather late as I ran NON this summer. (Not that I ran too well that is for sure!) hahahah…  Anyway after NON I took 21 days off from running.  I needed the break both physically (I was having some thyroid issues) and mentally ( my season, did not end as I had hoped for)…. So I  slowly started training back  for CC in the early part of July and feel like my training is going amazing right now.

I have run in two races so far.   The Scottsdale Distance  Classic, which was a blast!! It rained and it was the first time ever in my HS career that I have been blessed with running a race in the rain! It was amazing!  Tyler  Bingham stuck his nose right in there with me and we had a great race. It was fun and I felt like winning and running a time of 14:55 for 3 miles  without going all out was a great way to open my season.  This past weekend our team went to CA to run in the Mustang Invite in Chula Vista, CA.  This was a new experience for us, but also a lot of fun (hanging out at the beach was probably the best part!) .  I won the 5K with a time of 15:40, and met a new friend named Jacob Roach (Ottay HS)… He was an animal, seriously, 6’4 and a MAN! The race was good, and again I felt like I had a bit left in my tank… Hopefully that is a good sign as I get ready to race the best of the best here in AZ on Oct. 2^nd at the Twilight Distance Festival! It is going to be an all out war with Shrader, Magnason, Munoz, and so many more great runners..... I can't even name them all!

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read my journal, good luck to all of you this coming season… One final thought….. Be yourself, do your best, and do what it takes to WIN!

Sherod