I'm not sure how to describe my experience at the 2014 USATF Club cross country race other than ridiculous....crazy at the race and one hell of an after party. I've never experienced a race like this before.
We drove up Friday night and got dinner with my teammates. We are a bunch of fun runners who are all in different spots in our training. We havn't even practiced on cross country terrain and a few of us were coming back after fall marathons and none of us (besides me) had any substantial anaerobic racing and training under our belts this season. We knew we had three of us who could do well and were looking to beat the local Pacers and GRC C and B teams. It didn't turn out that way exactly. Cross country truly is a different sport in running.
The course was nice and wide with rolling hills and really muddy on the sharp turns. The mens open 10K was stacked with professionals like Matt Tegenkamp, German Fernandez, Tyler Pennel, Ryan Hill, Nick Arciniaga, and the best regional club runners in the Nation. It was extremely stacked, and even more competitive than the NCAA DI race was when looking at straight times and depth. Insanely crazy, I was racing with a lot of runners much more talented and quicker than I. It was so much fun!
Prerace was a circus with a bazillion skinny and fast guys who made even me feel tall and muscular. We went off and I was in a sea of people to the point it was almost hypnotizing. I couldn't really fathom how fast the lead men were out...these guys are on a whole new level. Truly gods among mortals. By 3k I was still in a massive group but I had plenty of room to pass people by then so being boxed in was never really an issue for me. I relaxed and let some guys pass me. I ran through the 5Kin 16:45 really relaxed with a slight side stitch. I picked it up then and started passing people, including a few GRC and Pacers bros. I fought them back and forth and I was really gunning it by 22 minutes in. My legs were feeling the anaerobic burn on the hills and I dug deep and my competitive side came out. Some really painful stuff.
I fought tooth and nail to get some GRC guys and this Pacers guy but couldn't do it. I finished in 33:03 and for that course, it was a good effort on my part. I went through the chute to take off my chip and sitting right next to me was Matt Tegenkamp...cool as hell! Awesome race but our team did not do as well as I thought and we were lacking in depth, but a great experience all the same.
At the after party I met some awesome people. we ended up taping 12 kegs and I even drank some beer with Tegenkamp and got a photo. It's amazing how these olympians are just normal-ass people. We busted a move on the dance floor and had a great time. Such an awesome event! 269th place. lol, so so deep.
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