Coach Montoya summed up our final race very well. She also gets props for the picture.

This season featured 5 runners, 2 coaches, 5 races, and 15 trophies/medals. A great season all-around!

Since we were unable to schedule any meets with other schools, we ran a handful of 5K races in Vienna. Our last race was about 45 min outside the city in a small town called Großweikersdorf. This race also featured an 86 year old man who ran the 10K. Wow!

It was a lot of fun coaching this team. We shared a lot of laughs and good times, and it was great to see them work hard and improve so much throughout the season.

Now we’re working on a post-season training program to stay in shape for track season. If everything works out we’ll run a couple of off-season races. I’ll keep you posted.

The Cross Country team ran two races since my last update and performed very well in both of them.

Just getting to this race was an adventure: An adventure well documented by Coach Montoya.

This race was up in the hills of the Vienna Woods right on the outskirts of the city. The 5K race started with a grueling uphill route into the woods. Fortunately, what goes up must come down. So after pushing themselves up up up the hill, they got to enjoy running down it on the homestretch.

This race awarded the top 3 in each age group some pretty unique trophies. Snow globes with gold, silver or bronze “snow.” Snow globe trophies. Snowglobphies? In any case, they were a well-deserved reward for a well run race.
Our next race took us to the small town of Schwechat just outside of Vienna. This race’s route traced the Schwechat River up one bank and back down the other. It was a beautifully scenic route and perfect running weather.

The kids once again did very well, taking the top 2 spots in both the boys and girls Jugend division. No snowglobphies this time, but they did receive some nice looking medals.

I think this may have been my boys’ favorite race, as it featured all-you-can-eat chili at the post-race buffet.