AM: The race isn't until the afternoon, so I went for a shakeout this morning. I saw a few guys in the locker room right as I was going to run, and they thought I was crazy for running the day of a race. Anyway, I went out a mile and a half on Carterville, then I came back to the locker room, grabbed my old matumbos, and went over to the indoor track for some strides. I did 4X80 meter strides, focusing on turnover and arms. I was felt really good on those.
Early PM: We headed out to SUU, and stopped on this random road and took a bunch of pictures like half way. We stopped for some food, but I packed myself some raspberry jelly sandwiches, and some snack, so I just had that. It ended up really working for the race.
PM: We got to the course and made our racing jerseys. Fat Camp baby! They ended up being really cool. It was really insanely windy and sort of cold, augmented by the wind, so I wore a long sleeve, a running sweater, and my hoodie. We dropped off our stuff by the line, then did the course once. It was a loop around a golf course, full of rolling hills. The race was 6k, which was three loops. The worst part is that there is a steep, gravel uphill, that leads onto this downhill dirt road, that was almost like concrete, so that wasn't fun in spikes. After one lap around, we sat around some more, I spiked by spikes, then we went for another lap warm up, and after a potty break, I did a little more warm up, then put on my spikes, and did some drills and finally strides. Then we all went over to the line, did a few more strides, prayer and cheer, and lined up. I took off all my stuff right before toeing the line.
My goal for this race was just to go out really conservatively, and move up during the race to where I should be. I went out too hard at the Autumn Classic, and that brought down my race. During the warm up, I was feeling pretty flat. Like I wasn't just about to race. The wind and cold I think just put me in that mentality.
The gun went off, and there was a lot of jostling because the course narrows pretty fast. I just stayed out of trouble, and was maybe in the top 25. I stayed in the bulk of the pack, and drafted as best I could for that whole first lap. I wanted to make a move right around the steep uphill, but I told myself not to panic, and I stayed right around top 20 until the first lap passed. After the first lap, I made a move on the long, gradual uphill, which happens to be the longest stretch of the loop. I passed a bunch of guys there, and caught the chase pack, then moved past them and starting closing on the lead pack. I caught them when we turned and started heading over to the gravel uphill. I stuck on the tails of the lead pack for the rest of that lap, which consisted of two UVU guys, Nate Jewkes, and Nick. On the third lap. Nate pulled away, and a UVU guy fell back. I passed him, then went up the gravel hill for the last time, but he caught me on the downhill road part, and from there we just kicked it in to the finish. I finished 5th in 19:50.
Overall I'd say this was the first time I have been happy with a race this cross season. I stuck to my plan, executed it when I had to, and it payed off. I think this race gave me some confidence for my next goal, and I know what I have to do to keep improving.
Our team also did really well. Had the BYU Unattached team been scored, we would have won the meet! So that was cool.
Afterwards Coached talked to us a bit, and then we took some pictures with our Fat Camp jerseys on, and we did some cool down. I did two laps and change for a total of 10.5 miles. I felt pretty good for just having raced hard!
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