Arizona CC Journal #3 Final Journal: Garrett Baker-Slama

  Milesplit Arizona Cross Country Journals

You may not recognize the name or even the face, however, you will probably start hearing the name "Garrett Baker-Slama more often.  Joining the Corona del Sol track team last season as a junior, he is competing in his first and last cross country season and making some pretty impressive marks.  

 

Garrett will probably be heading for he soccer fields for awhile but will be back to running for Corona del Sol for his second track season.  I would like to thank Garrett for his awesome journals this fall......he did an awesome job!!

 

 Garrett Baker-Slama

(Sr., Corona del Sol)

 

Journal Entry #3 (November 11, 2009)

 

Hello again,

 

                  Well cross country is now officially over and I can’t believe how fast the whole experience just flew by. It seems like just yesterday that I started training over the summer in preparation for the season. I’ve really come to love the whole sport of cross country and I’ve found that it’s a lot different then what I’m used to in soccer. There seems to be a greater sense of community between everyone involved in xc throughout the state. There isn’t a great website like this for soccer that keeps everyone up to date with how everything is going throughout the state. Also, I find it so different and yet refreshing that after the races are all said and done, I’ve been able to meet and become friends with some amazing guys from different schools, most notably Cory Breinholt from Highland and Edgar  Duarte from Cesar Chavez. I know people might think that last part funny, but in soccer it just seems like the opposing team is always your enemy, and there aren’t too many friends made during or after the game. Well now I’ll get to talking about how the end of my season went, so I guess I’ll just go in order with the City, Region, and State Meets.

 

[pictured right: Garrett Baker-Slama (#312) just before the dip into the large hill (about 1.25 miles into the race) with teammate Jared Hirschl (#314).]

 

                  I’m not sure why, but coming into the Tempe City Meet I was very anxious and nervous. I think it may have been because this was one of the first meets where my team and I personally had a good chance of winning. The race started off pretty well with our whole team sticking together in the front. Then as the field spread out, the race was pretty much between McClintock’s top runner and I. Luckily at the end of the race, I had a little more in my tank and I ended up out kicking him to win the race. This was such an amazing feeling because it was the first race I had ever won, so I was very excited. As a team we also had a very strong performance with Jared Hirschl placing 3^rd and Matt Whitlatch, in his first race back from injury, placing 9^th. Unfortunately, Desert Vista also had a very strong performance, and they ended up edging us out for the team title.

 

                  I think that the Central Region City Meet might be one of my favorite races the whole year.  The meet was out at Free Stone Park in Gilbert and it was a beautiful, cool day to run. I knew there was going be some great competition in this race with Matt and Jared from my team, plus Cory Breinholt from Highland and Tyler Bingham from Mountain View. Plus to add to the great day, my whole team was rockin fresh new socks with flames on them (yes, very stylish) which I learned was a tradition for Corona.  The race started off and the top group was established pretty quickly. Mountain View did a great job of working together and their top three guys pretty much lead the whole race with Cory, Jared, and I right behind. With about a half mile left, Tyler, Cory, and I began to separate from the rest of the pack. I started to kick just before the downhill that lead to the finish, and as I came across the line I couldn’t believe that I had won the race. That was such a great feeling and truthfully, I really surprised myself with that win. The team also had a really strong performance with Matt and Jared placing 5^th and 7^th and then our 4^th and 5^th runners were also in the top 15. Sadly, we were beat out again by another team’s strong performance, but this time it was Mountain View.

 

                  Now I’ll finally get to the meet that we all worked so hard the entire season for, state.  Coming into state I was surprisingly less nervous than I thought I’d be. I think winning at City and Region had given me the confidence I needed and I also knew that my teammates, Matt and Jared, would be with me throughout the race. The race definitely got out to a fast start but I found my niche in the second pack. I’m glad that I didn’t go out with the lead pack of the three runners from Alhambra, Trevor Brown, and Chandler, because I think that pace might have hurt me in the end. The second pack of about 5 or 6 runners stayed together until about the 2 mile mark. At this point, it seemed like Mt. View’s Tyler Bingham and I began to break away. When we got to the smaller desert ravine on the south side of the course, I decided to make a surge and from that point on I was kind of running by myself. From then on I set my sights on the runner from Chandler who was in 3^rd place. As I caught up to him, I realized that something seemed to be wrong with him and just as I was passing him, he collapsed on the course. I never did hear what happened or if he was ok, so my prayers definitely go out for him. That was about a half mile away from the finish and from that point on, my mind was focused on finishing strong and not letting anyone catch me. One of the greatest parts of the race was coming up to that last hill before the finish. I was getting extremely tired but I had so many people from Corona cheering me on that it really helped me push to the finish. Also, my coach for the Corona Soccer team cancelled their first Saturday practice so the team could come and cheer me on. Apparently they ran along the whole last stretch yelling for me. I can’t even put into words how much I appreciated that. Once I finished the race, I was about as close to complete exhaustion as I’ve ever been, but it was a great feeling when just a few seconds after I crossed the line, my teammate Matt came bumping into me cause he had finished right behind me in fourth. I don’t remember much right after the race because my coaches had to practically drag me back to camp cause I couldn’t see or walk to well (there are some pretty funny pictures of this).  So back at camp, I figured out that everyone else had done great as well with Jared also placing in the top 10 at 9^th.  It was great getting my individual medal at the awards ceremony, but by far the greatest part of my day came with the team awards. As they listed off the places for the teams, they finally came to our Corona Team and we had gotten 2^nd!!! We were ecstatic and amazed that we had gone from not even being one of the teams considered in the running for the state title, to second place. This was the first time Corona had brought home a trophy from the state meet since 1992 when they won. This just capped off an amazing day and season for our team. Also I’d like to congratulate our girl’s team on getting 4^th in state and Danica Ganje placing 10^th individually!

 

                  Well I’m sorry this entry has gone so long, but I guess I had a lot to say. Before I finish this, I’d like to thank Margot Kelly for asking me to write these journal entries. It has really added to making my first and last cross country season a special one. I hope everyone really appreciates all she does for xc community by putting together this site. Well that’s all I have to say and thanks for reading my entry!

 

Garrett Baker-Slama  

 

 

Journal Entry #2 (October 18, 2009)

 

Hey everyone!

 

                  WOW I can’t believe how fast this season has gone by. We only have city, region, and state left and then it’s all over. Well actually there’s still Nike Cross Regionals and Footlocker for those who qualify, but still, it’s really flown by. It’s really kind of sad for me because as much fun as I’m having this year, I know that it’s my last. I guess the one good thing is that I’m definitely not going to be burnt out on the sport. Oh well, now let’s move on to the more interesting stuff about how the season’s going so far.

 

                  Since my last entry, my team and I ran in the Doug Conley Invitational out at Rolling Hills Golf Course. I would still have to say that Twilight was the biggest meet we’ve been to overall, but Conley was pretty close as far as having a big and competitive varsity race. The morning started out more interesting than we would’ve liked because of some transportation issues, but once we got to the course I think everyone was exited and pumped for the race. I jumped out pretty quick to start the race, I think I was one of the first few guys right at the beginning. I do this cause I hate getting stuck in the big mob, way too congested for me. From there, I dropped back a bit and just tried to follow behind the lead pack for the rest of the race. I’m not a huge fan of hills, so I felt like the course was pretty tough since it’s very true to its name with plenty of “Rolling Hills”. I was happy with my finish cause with probably 200 meters to go I kicked by a couple of guys and ended up taking 10^th overall. Especially with the amount of quality runners from all divisions being in the race, I was pretty pleased with myself. My other first year buddy at Corona, junior Jared Hirschl, also finished strong at 14^th place.

 

                  Hopefully the team can keep going strong as we head into the city meet this week and continue through state. I’m also really looking forward to the return of Matt Whitlatch to our team. He’s been injured the whole season but he’s been working his butt off and everyone should watch out for Corona when he makes his return (which will hopefully be very soon). I feel like no one is considering Corona to do too much this year, but I definitely think we’re going to be making some noise once state rolls around. Well that’s it for this entry. Thanks again for reading this and good luck to everyone for the rest of the season!

 

Garrett Baker-Slama