My name is Kate Bulteel, and I am now a junior Orono High School. I run outdoor track in the spring, and I compete in the 200m, 400m, 4x400m relay, and Pole Vault. I first went to New Englands as a freshman, when they were located in Fichburg, Massachusetts, and competed in the open 200 and the 4x400 relay. I also went last year, when they were in Saco, Maine, and competed in the open 200 and open 400.

New Englands means a lot to me. In fact, it is the focus of my entire competition year: besides getting personal bests, New Englands is the next most important part of my competition season. It is more than a chance to show off for a select few, however. It is a lasting bond between team members and coaches that attend them, and means a lot to the entire team as well. 

As a freshman, I really wasn’t expecting to go to New Englands, but one week after the state Class C meet, there I was, in a drizzle, running the open 200 and anchoring the 4x400 relay. My heart still beats faster when I remember turning the last curve, the middle of a tight pack of three knowing I had a hundred to pass and not be passed, and the surge of energy that got me down the last 100 in front of the other two girls. 

At the UMO track camp that summer, over a month later, one of the other girls approached me and said, “Hey, you were at New Englands, right?” I said yes and asked her how she knew, and she said she had been there running the open 200 with me. She was from Massachusetts, so I would never have met her but for this experience, and she somehow had remembered seeing me, and we quickly became friends.

The weather last year was bright and sunny, very different from the year before. I ran a two second best time in the 400, a huge time drop when you’re already running a 62. Shortly before, the 4x100 relays had been run, the only time I have ever cried at a track meet. One of the girls from a Vermont 4x100 team had tragically died in between winning her state meet and New Englands. Her team mates placed a baton on her empty blocks and ran the lap together, sobbing, after the rest of the heat had passed. This was one of the strongest motivations I had to run my best time, so it may never have happened but for New Englands.

New Englands is not about winning and losing. It’s about you. The 4x400 heat that we were in when I was a freshman was the slowest heat. We ran a 4:19; the winning time was a 3:55. After being second to last in the 200 as a freshman, my goal was to come back as a sophomore and be in a higher heat, as well as get a best time. New Englands for most people is about personal goals like these. It is inspiring to see girls who can run more than a second and a half faster than me in a 200, it makes me want to work harder. Without New Englands, I would have no chance to see these athletes, and one of my most important goals for the season would be gone.

New Englands brought me far closer to my teammates and coach. Training for an extra week with one or two people then traveling overnight with them means you become a lot closer. You share memories from on the track and off it. I can still make jokes and have my track friends understand them about things that were funny two years ago, because each New Englands is indelibly imprinted in our memories. I hope that I will never have to say to a younger athlete, “I had these wonderful experiences, but they will not be available to you,” because New Englands changed my life and it will change the lives of many others after me, if it is given a chance. 

Kate Bulteel