Notes
Race went out at what felt like a pretty comfortable pace. I simply stayed at the back of the top pack for a bit, then moved up in that pack progressively through the first mile. Well, let me clarify. There was the "top pack", and then like 100 meters ahead of that was Nate Jenkins. So all of us battling for second but let's just pretend that's where the race was.
So at the end of the first mile I was in I think the top 3, and at the end of the 2k loop I decided to take the lead. That lasted for 3-400 meters until we got up to the soccer fields. I got passed back by the Greater Boston guy who was previously leading, then I passed him back. Then the guy who was in third caught up to both of us and passed me. He continued to extend his lead on me after that.
Back into the woods and I'm still trying to catch that guy and also fending off the Greater Boston guy. I was getting more distance on him at least so that was good. After a while it was clear I wasn't catching the (not) top guy so I just went as best I could through the rest of the 3k loop. The 3k/2k loop merge took a lot longer to get to than I was expecting, but once I got there I knew there wasn't much left. Pushed through for a good finish in 16:21.
Overall pretty happy with the race, first XC race and I ran just as good as that road race I did on Monday. This was a pretty fast course but still. More than that I felt really good through the first and second mile and had a good progressive race with a strong pickup into and through the second mile. Hoping that with some more speedwork I can go sub-16 and hopefully closer to 15:30s in an XC race. That would be really awesome. Feeling good and hoping to keep that feeling going.