Arizona CC Journals - Kylee Kieser

  Milesplit Cross Country Journals  

Kylee Kieser returns this season as a top distance runner in Arizona.  Kylee has already had a great start to the 2010 Cross Country Season placing 2nd at the Sole Sport Invitational and winning the Padre Invite.  Keep checking back as Kylee shares her final prep cross country season.

Kylee Kieser

(Sr., Marcos de Niza, AZ)

Journal Entry #1 (September 28, 2010)

Introduction 

  Hi mile split readers, I hope everyone enjoyed their summer off and had a great 2 months of training for the 2010 xc season! I am very excited to be able talk to all you guys about my season and my life. I am Kylee Kieser, I ran xc for Casa Grande for 3 years. I started running when I was in sixth grade and to be honest I hated it with a passion, my work ethic was horrible and I never really wanted to be there. By my eight grade year I decided to run cross country. I had never run cross country before so to get a feel for long distance racing I ran in the Arizona summer road race series. I ended up doing really well and from that moment on I enjoyed being a runner. Then I began my freshmen year at Casa Grande, I was so excited to be running on the high school team. My dad was an All- American and 3^rd in the nation in the 3000 meter steeplechase, so basically running is in my blood. I hear it alot that I have natural talent,  but most of it is hard work, like the quote, “ Hard work beats talent when talent hardly works.” I believe that is so true, talent can only take you so far, but hard will take you even farther.

I am now starting my senior year at Marcos De Niza High School. Yes, it was hard transfering for my last year of high school, but I love Tempe and my new school. Last track season was tough for me, my father changed my whole training system and it was tough not to being up there in the top where you know you belong. At State the same thing, I knew I should have been up there in the top with Brianna Decker and Daylee Burr and not where I was but you know we all have bad races and we just move on and get ready for the next season. I made the choice to run the Meet of Champions trying to run a better time in my two mile but that didn’t happen, after that I decided to move on and take a week and a half off and get ready for my senior year of cross country. In late July I began to get knee pain in my left knee, I went to the doctor and sure enough I had tendonitous, like my good old friend Rex Woodburry. I began to go to physical therapy and my knee got better and now my legs and knees are stronger then ever.
 
Since this is my first journal and the season has already started I have ran 2 races, my first was the Scottsdale invite,  I had never ran that course before and I loved it. Most of all because I got to run with the boys. I ended up getting second behind Sarah Fakler from Xavier and I beat Brianna Decker for the first time! I do not count state from last season. I love that girl to death and always will no matter what the out come is, we will always be friends. The next race I ran was Padre invite (photo left, Kylee finishing at the Padre Invite) which is the meet my school puts on. I won that race and my team got second! Go Padres! My time wasn’t to fast but it ended up being the fastest of the week! The win earned me a spot on channel 3’s varsity sports zone! The Padre was a nice win and it was a great sight to see my teammate Paige Libsack finishing third right behind me! You junior runners better watch out for her she is crazy good and is coming for you guys! I also wanted to say great job to Marrisa Optaz for winning the Boulder Creek Invite by almost a whole minute, great job girl. Basically my racing plan is pretty simple, just run to get out of trouble and settle into my pace and run your my race from there. My coach and I don’t tend to plan to far into the future, its nice to have goals and to work to exceed them, but I take it one race at a time. I focus on the race of the week and when that one is over I move on to the next one.