I received this e-mail from Maria Dalzot regarding her decision not to run outdoor track her senior year.
I would like to personnally address any questions about my decision not to run track for MHS before rumors and speculation have a chance to begin.
Over the past 3 years, since an injury-ridden sophomore cross country season, I have worked very hard to get back to a level of being competitive statewide. This has involved a multi-year plan with my off season coaches and doing everything right...
getting in the miles and tough workouts all through the winter, eating right, lots of crunches, push-ups and pull-ups, and a solid 8 hours of sleep every night. I have been able to work my way up to 60 miles per week, workouts such as 20 x 400 with
45 sec rest, 28 x 200 on/200 off, 5 x mile ending in 5:35, and 15 mile long runs. This has paid off for me with an improvement in my 3200m from 12:28 to 11:48 to 11:12 and already to 11:05 indoors this year. Other than a somewhat disappointing cross country season this past fall, I\'ve been very happy with the results and progression. I feel that given my 11:05 recently, in the right race, under the right conditions and with the right competition I have a good shot at Rachel Buser\'s state record of 10:57.
It is easy to see that my training is very different, mostly in volume, from what many of the girls statewide and on my team are doing. This puts me in a situation where as I start the season with my team, I either have to go backwards in my training
or require special attention from my coach in terms of running more mileage, different workouts, longer runs, many runs on my own, etc. Coach Patti\'s coaching philosophy is such that everyone is treated the same and no one gets special attention. I
feel that he had gone out of his way to accomodate me last cross country season and even moreso this track season by letting me train on my own for the first weeks of the season and to run the National Scholastic Indoor Track Championships in New
York City. But I also know that this was against his philosophy and would eventually lead to problems with teammates and parents. I don\'t feel it is right to use my success to demand special attention and therefore I\'ve decide to run on my own
this season. I will race where I can, hopefully some of the post season national championships should I qualify, and prepare for my future running career.
This was a very tough decision from both a team and individual goals perspective. I do understand that many will feel that I am letting my team down. I feel that if I were to run \"for the team\", I\'d be compromising what I feel is right for me and would become very frustrated which would not only bring down my performances but would also cause problems within the team. I do wish my team complete success this season and into the future and am as supportive of them as I can be.
Individually, it is hard to give up another shot at a state title and Holly Hunter\'s 11:09 state meet record. These are things you only have one chance to achieve. I will also miss the oppurtunity to race against the ever improving group of competitors I\'ve grown up with; Keri is a tremendous talent and is always there when it counts, Amber is working harder than ever and after missing last season is anxious to race, Kaylyn will have another shot at the 1600m this season and will be a threat at 3200m if she decides to move up, Heather is also working even harder than before and with a focus on track over soccer will be tougher than ever this season in all distances from the 800m to 3200m. Though I beat Rachel a couple times this indoor season, I don\'t count those as I know she wasn\'t taking those races seriously. I was really looking forward to racing her again after our great Harry Greene race last year. She has already established herself as the greatest the state has ever seen at 3200m with her 10:57 at last year\'s state meet. I wish all of them success this season and I can\'t wait to watch some of their races.
I would like to publicly thank Coach Patti for all the time he had invested in me since my freshman year and in the team for the past 4 years, for the team state championship titles in cross country, for my individual state championship title and for
taking the team out of state to major invitationals with great competition.
Best of luck to everyone this season,
Maria Dalzot