Running with Rachael Rosow

Many state tournament competitions were postponed this week on the tail of a surprise October nor'easter and massive power outages.

But runners charged ahead Tuesday on Election Day to race at State Opens at Wickham Park in Manchester.

After winning the Class MM state championship title in her five-kilometer run (19:31), hours before the snow started falling on Oct. 29, Avon sophomore Rachael Rosow was happy that her entire team would be joining her at State Opens. The Falcons placed second overall in their class. She finished in 22:37 at Opens, behind fellow sophomores Sara Stokesbury (21:06) and Maddi Zapatka (22:30), and junior Katie McIntyre (21:51).

Her time at the state tournament race pre-Halloween weekend was one of her best times on the daunting Wickham course. The race, which was moved an hour earlier to avoid the snow, happened "just in time," as races scheduled beyond 2:30 p.m. were canceled. The course was faster that day, she said, because a lot of it was rerouted to avoid potential mud spots, eliminating some "killer hills" and replacing grassy parts of the course with a paved path. Her race was pushed an hour earlier to beat the snow. The change in course got rid of the "most dreaded hill."

"The Green Monster goes up and up," Rosow said of the hill.

That time beat her previous year's time of 20:04. Prior to last year's season, Rosow competed in Nationals for track and field, over-training herself, she said. Though her best time, closer to the 19-minute mark, remains at her home course at Fisher Meadows.

Running in the cold days before Halloween wasn't easy.

"My entire upper body froze," Rosow said after her winning October race. "We had the worse conditions today.

Yet Rosow maintained her focus.

"Running is 90 percent mental," Rosow said Oct. 29. "Today is one of those days everything clicked.

Toward the beginning of the race, she got stuck behind some Guilford runners and had to maneuver through them. Coming down a hill toward the end, she said she remembers someone yelling to her, "You have 100 yards on her."

She kept that lead through the finish.

"It's a powerful feeling when you're out in the lead," Rosow said.

Rosow started getting serious about running when she was in eighth grade. She grew up playing soccer and swimming competively, and she is also a clarinet and piano player.

"I like running for days and races like today," Rosow said. "You're the one who gets to feel the success of it."