Cross country has been such a huge part of Micah's life. I can't believe it's over. (I know he still has track this spring, but it's not the same!)
Micah's first race was a one mile fun run at church. He walked most of it. 😄
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| Kayla, Ally, Micah, and Carter |
He did a few more one mile runs over the next few years, then started wanting to do longer runs with me. He was a great student and listened well as I encouraged him to set a steady pace and keep his breathing under control. When he was 8, he really wanted to run the 5K on Memorial Day. And so began a theme that we saw for the next 9 years: we underestimated what Micah can do when he puts his mind to it. He ran the entire thing without stopping (and then ran the one mile fun run afterward).
The next year we tried to run the race together again, but I couldn't keep up and let him go on his own. He finished in under 25 minutes.
While gathering pictures for this post, I found the age group results from that day. We didn't know any of the other boys at the time, but now we know three of them from the high school team. How cool that as a 9-year-old Micah was running with future teammates!
He also ran a 5K on Labor Day that year. Without me dragging him down, he was over a minute faster (23:27).
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An obstacle course run that Micah and I did together
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Micah will tell you that he was "terrible" in middle school, but he seemed great to us! His best time was 12:19 for two miles (but he'd also often be in the 13's). In 8th grade he and Ben were almost always the first two finishers for their team.
It was a tough decision for him to give up soccer and choose cross country in high school, but we are so happy that he did! For his
first race as a high schooler, his coaches put him in the varsity race. We thought moving up to a 3 mile race instead of 2 miles would work to his advantage, but we cautioned him to have reasonable expectations. We told him that racing in a large pack of boys through fields and woods would be more challenging than the friendly 5k road races he had done so far.
Nope. He blew us away! Scott and I were both in shock when we saw his time of 18:19! The rest of his season was just as impressive, with his times consistently in the 18's. He finished the season by placing 4th on his team at regionals.
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| Aw, little Micah! |
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| always neck-in-neck with Ben |
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| Cornerstone buddies Nathan and Owen |
He continued to improve in his sophomore year. Some highlights of the season were the team winning first at the Riverside invitational, getting a new PR of 17:47, and being in the top 5 for his team at districts. Socially, he missed last years' seniors and had to adjust to a group of talkative incoming freshmen.
Junior year saw him running in the 17's in more than half of his races and lowering his PR by a few more seconds. He was an essential part of the team, almost always placing in a position to score points. He received an individual ribbon at the Gilmour Invitational, and was one spot away from receiving honors at the league meet.
"Micah Gurley had his best race of the season by far! I loved it. This is the Micah we have been waiting for. He was determined to have a great race and he willed himself to do it, passing so many people in the second half of his race.""Micah Gurley also had an amazing start all while losing his glasses (and picking them up) mid-race…and running a LIFETIME PR. He’s a gamer and he did not disappoint!" "Micah Gurley definitely ran his BEST RACE OF THE SEASON. He planned and executed his race perfectly! His aggressive last half of his race is impressive, picking off runner after runner."
For his senior year, Micah pushed himself to a new level of intentionality and determination. He was more disciplined in his eating and resting and planning, as well as his incredible efforts during practice. He also decided to be more aggressive in his starts, which seemed to make a big difference for him.
His biggest goal of the season was to get under 17 minutes, and he did it at the first race of the season! You would think by this point we would know better, but Scott and I were absolutely shocked! (In our defense, who would have thought that he would run almost 50 seconds faster than his already incredibly fast PR from last year!?) I couldn't believe it when I saw them rounding the first bend and Micah was in the front pack! His amazing run earned him an individual medal for placing 19th out of over 300 boys.
"Senior captain Micah Gurley had an unbelievable race with a HUGE LIFETIME PR, breaking 17 minutes for the first time and simply looked amazing. His race was such a highlight of the meet and we loved seeing his hard work, leadership, and dedication pay off."
Getting under that 17-minute mark established him as one of the best runners in Tallmadge history. He set his next goal to get on the board of top 10 fastest boys in Tallmadge history. He would have needed to beat 16:40, and his best chance was at the Wooster invitational. Sadly, that meet was the week that he had a knee injury and had to sit out. Literally
every teammate (except one girl) PR'd at this meet! It was incredibly disappointing that he didn't get the opportunity to meet that goal, but still amazing that he came so close.
Micah raced consistently well all season, improving all his times from the previous year and usually placing second or third for his team.
Another big highlight of the season and of his career was the league meet. He told us he was going to be in the top 11 and get "First-Team All League". His crazy fast time of 17:07 put him in 10th place!! (We also found out later that his time was 22nd all-time for the school at the district meet.)
He finished the season and his career with one last amazing performance on a very difficult course.
"Senior captain Micah Gurley gave it his all and really put himself in a possible state qualifying position. Although it didn’t pan out, it was an amazing, gutsy, and courageous race and a fitting end to such an incredible career. Micah has been so important to this team - his calming presence is what this team needs (and I need) in such a chaotic environment. His leadership skills and his brain power have been a blessing for all of us."
Just when we thought we couldn't be any more proud of him, we got to celebrate his accomplishments at the end-of-the-year banquet. Each of the boys on the team had been asked who they looked up to on the team. Almost every boy included Micah in their answer:
"Micah, because he always knew what to do and kept us in order most of the time."
"Micah, because he was a great team captain (who also gave me rides)."
"Micah stood out as a great leader."
"Micah as a great leader and friend."
"Micah for being a great leader who always made sure we were ready to go and on time."
"Micah. He's always the guy who keeps us on track...but he's super fun to be around."
"Micah for always being a silent leader."
"Micah for giving me rides and being so kind."
I'm going to be sad for a while that this time in his life has come to an end, but more importantly - I'm incredibly grateful that it happened.
