San Diego's Alli Billmeyer (Torrey Pines) has emerged as one of California's top runners. As a junior Alli finished 5th at the California XC State Meet and 14th at the Foot Locker West Regionals. She went on to have a fantastic track and field season finishing 2nd in the 1600 at the State Meet clocking 4:47.79, 2 seconds off her PR or 4:45.06. Alli also has a PR of 2:09.94 in the 800 and 10:18.70 in the 3200 (from a dual meet last spring). Keep checking back as Alli journals about her final prep season.
Alli Billmeyer
(Sr., Torrey Pines)
Journal Entry #3 (December 2, 2010)
Hey Runners!
This past weekend was our California state meet up in Fresno at Woodward Park!
The cold and rainy weather was ideal running conditions for me and I could sense that i was ready... I led my team out onto the starting line where we sported our legendary, flowery, passion shorts in the girls Div I race. This was the last race i would run with my high school xc team; when the gun went off, i smiled the first 100 meters just thinking about how lucky i was to be competing with not only some of the best runners in the nation, but running with the support of my team and family behind me.
My strategy going into this race was different from any other race i have ran in my career. I decided to go out the first two miles staying within my comfort zone and have a strong last mile to the finish. That is exactly what took place... The race unfolded with a pack of about 5 runners including myself surging back and forth, constantly spreading out and then regrouping. With 1200 to go i made my move and sprinted to the finish. With 50 yds to go i was in second place behind Sara Baxter but got passed at the last seconds and was not able to change speeds bc i was already going full out haha.. I placed 3rd with a 20 sec PR of 17:25 for the 5k... It was the fastest time posted by a senior that day and the 4th fastest time overall! It is sad to know that i will never again race on this state meet course with all my memories that go along with it; Being team State Champs, throwing up in the medical tent:), cheering for the boys team, taking pictures in our red, long, tight, warm up spandex, laughing on long bus rides, and being surrounded by my huge family cheer squad, some of which live in Fresno and have cheered me on all 4 years... All the hard work was worthwhile as i stood on the podium, smiling.
November Training:
-8th-13th: highest mileage week ever for me(43 miles) / mile repeats with 1:30 recovery( 5:27, 5:31, 5:26, 5:23) / Team won leagues race!
-15th-20th: mile repeats/light tempo/ CIF- 2nd place as a team and 2nd as an individual (5 secs behind Molly Grabill)
-22th-27th: 2 mile repeats( 5:17, 5:32) 2 1200 repeats (4:03, 4:00) with 2:00 recovery/ State Meet 6th as a team
Ive been training really hard so the tapering that i have been doing last week and this week ( making my steady sate runs more of a recovery) will give me a little extra in my upcoming races..
Wish me luck. I hopefully will be going to nationals on the 11th after competing at regionals this weekened!
sincerely,
alli
p.s. I committed to Stanford in September! so excited:)
