Submitted by Luke Lovelace
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MileSplit Foot Locker National Coverage
Dec. 6, 2007
My trip to Foot Locker started out a little more exciting than I wanted it to be. My neighbor had to wake me up because I overslept my alarm and my mom called the house approximately 10 times and I wouldn’t wake up. So she called our lovely neighbor Sally and she came and woke me up. It was 4:30 a.m. and my flight left at 6 a.m. so I flew out the door and got to the airport with about 20 minutes to spare. I flew into Atlanta where about 10 other guys and gals who qualified were going to meet. After about a four hour lay over I was on my way to San Diego.
I sat by a girl from the Northeast and enjoyed talking to her. When we landed in San Diego we got on a bus to the Hotel Del Coronado. We got all our uniforms and checked into our rooms and met our roommates. I roomed with Kevin Williams from Colorado and he was a great guy. That night we had a welcome dinner.
Dec. 7, 2007
We woke up and went to the course run through, everyone was worried because it was pouring down rain right before we left but when we got there it stopped raining and we were able to run the course.
There was a lot of talk about how we should wear spikes so I went with my parents that afternoon to a running store in La Mesa, Calif. and bought some spikes, which I was very thankful for. That night we had a pasta dinner and got to meet some of the best distance runners in the world including Olympic Trials Marathon Champion Ryan Hall.
Dec. 8, 2007
The girl’s race was first and then it was the guys. I was very disappointed with my race as my goal was to be top 15 and I finished 34th, but I realized how God had blessed me with the opportunity to come out here twice and that I can learn more from the bad races than I can from the good ones.
Final note: I was honored to represent the state of South Carolina and I learned a lot from my experience. I learned to always believe in yourself because to achieve you must believe and that as long as you are doing everything for the Glory of God you will be ok.
I would also like to congratulate Ryan Hill and Patrick Campbell on representing the Carolinas with All American finishes. Congratulations to everyone on a great cross country season and I cannot wait for track season.