SWR's Katherine Lee keeps conquering hills
Shoreham-Wading River's Katherine Lee at the New York State High School Federation Cross Country Championship at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2014. Credit: Errol Anderson
WAPPINGERS FALLS, N.Y. -- Katherine Lee isn't completely sure if she's awake yet. The Shoreham-Wading River freshman followed up her Class B public school state championship, won last week in Canton, with a top-five finish at the state Federation championships, held Saturday at Bowdoin Park.
"I still don't believe this has happened," Lee said of her recent success. "I'm just waiting for myself to wake up from this dream."
But all of it has been very real. Including Saturday, when Lee finished the 5K course (3.1 miles) in 18 minutes, 31.6 seconds, good for fifth place. Arlington's Bella Burda won in 17:50.4.
"I did really well on my uphills this week," Lee said. "I didn't walk on them today."
She said hills have been a work in progress throughout the season. During the postseason, Lee has trained on more difficult, hilly courses in order to prepare for the 'prime-time' races.
"Our school has exercise trails and nature trails," Lee said. "They're miles of trails that we run on every day. I think it's given my teammates and I a great advantage by not having to run on roads. We have a cross country course right by our school."
The increased hill work has made Lee a more complete runner, able to finish races without having to account for her previous tendency to walk on uphills.
"Every dual meet that we did [at Sunken Meadow], Cardiac Hill was like my break," Lee said. "Now I feel like I can't take a break because I know how to do hills now."
She said no hills at Bowdoin Park match the difficulty of Cardiac but it does feel like there are more hills there than Sunken Meadow, putting her newfound skill to the ultimate test.
"I felt myself pushing up all the hills and wanting to stop," Lee said. "But, I didn't."
After winning the public school state title, she took a day off before recommitting herself to her training.
"I decided that I really had to get ready for Federations," Lee said. "Since none of the other girls from my team were coming, I was training alone. I was able to do my own thing and do what I thought was right."
The absence of training partners tested Lee's self-starting ability. But, like everything else in the last three weeks, she had no troubling acing it.
"Sometimes, when I'm alone on the track, I say 'nobody's here, I can take it easy,' " Lee said. "But this week I said 'no one's here, I have to go harder.' "
Lee will take her tour of success to the Northeast Foot Locker Championships at Van Cortandt Park on Nov. 29 with the hope of qualifying for Footlocker Nationals on Dec. 13 in San Diego.
Garden City's Steph Gerland finished 23rd in 19:10.1. Syosset's Reilly Siebert was 35th in 19:19.3.
"I went out pretty slow," Siebert said. "But, I knew that I could make it back up to the hill. I felt my teammates racing behind me, so I raced for them so we could all do really well."
Syosset finished tenth with 290 points.
