Monday, November 21, 2011

Thankful

When I heard that I was going to be able to travel to Wisconsin to watch Kyle and Keelie run the national meet, I was really excited. This is going to sound stupid, but ever since I was a little kid, I watched these huge college meets on TV, and hoped one day I would get a chance to run in them, and now here I was 19 years old, acting like a kid in a candy store because I got to go watch one. We left early Saturday morning with Shea Jordan Jon and Keenan, all crammed into a small car, it was uncomfortable, but honestly I didn’t care, I was so excited. In high school I ran in some pretty huge meets, but when I got to Oshkosh on that day, I was awestruck by the number of people there, this was Cross Country not football, we weren’t supposed to have fans, but here they were, people from all  over the nation, gathered to watch some of the greatest runners  in America leave everything they had on that course. Kyle and Keelie both did a great job of representing Coe, as Kyle was in the front pack of runners for a very quick first mile, and Keelie showed her amazing track speed with a great kick at the end. After the meet, I got to shake the hand of the overall winner, and talk to a couple of the guys from the winning team, talking to them, and seeing how dedicated they all were really opened my eyes. I knew that in the next three years, there was nothing I wanted more than to get to race at these meets, and show everyone that I too could be great. With thanksgiving less than a week away, I’m thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of a great team, and I look forward to the next three years and know that great things are in store.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Procrastination is not as easy as high school

Friday November 18th, a day that will live in Infamy! This was the day that my freshman portfolio was due. Since my first day at Coe people from all over have been talking about this freshman portfolio that every freshman must complete in their first semester at Coe. Different people described it in many different ways, but the one thing they all agreed upon was that it was a lot of work! Basically this freshman portfolio was a project for your FYS class, where you are to compile a few of your papers, and write a preface analyzing your own work. From there, three different professors would read and grade your work. Both me and my roommates decided that we were going to start our portfolios early, but then we got a nerf basketball hoop, and concentrated more on that than perfecting our portfolios. So, the Monday before the 18th, we began to work our tails off in preparation for Friday, using every rescource at our disposal. We both went to the writing center and had conferences numerous times, with fellow blogger Hailley Fargo, and she helped us organize our ideas. Although we were really stressed out, we were able to eventually finish our portfolio, and learn a hard lesson about procrastination in the process!
Until the next adventure, Ryan Rey

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Studious Ryan is back and The end of a great season

November 12th Regionals Weekend                               
After Conference, we had some time off before our NCAA postseason meets began. I chose to spend the two weeks of no meets by catching up on some homework...exciting right? My accounting class was one that i chose to concentrate mostly on. I had some trouble learning the material, but one thing that is great about Coe is that even though accounting is my biggest class, it still only has twenty five people in it, and Professor Hansen is an awesome guy, who is always available after class to help you further understand the material. I've only been at Coe for a couple of months now, but i couldn’t imagine being at a big state school where that teacher student relationship isn’t as prominent. After a couple weeks of being extremely studious....and some pretty awesome pizza breaks all over Cedar Rapids, I was ready to race again! Sectionals was at Wartburg in Waverly, which was an extremely great course. The day of the meet, it was freezing, but as a team we heated up quick, we all rebounded from our poor races at Conference, and we even had two national qualifiers, congratulations Keelie Finnel and Kyle Heineman! Two weeks from now, they will be lucky enough  to run at the national meet in Oshkosh Wisconsin. As for me, my first season as a Kohawk ended that day at the regional meet, but I knew that after a short break to work on my freshman portfolio, I would be right in the thick of things, running hard to make my mark in track season.