Notes
All American Race. My focus was on getting out a little more conservative than last year and making sure my back didn't tighten up. Right away I could tell the race was going to have a bigger group up front than last year. I settled into the pack and kept it under control. I went through the mile with Balto in 5:20, and Nutmeg was close behind for a solid Alumni group. We were probably somewhere between 30-40th place. I was really happy with how good I was feeling and tried to pick the pace up a little right away. Balto stayed right with me and we started passing people. We got to the prairie and Balto and I would alternate leads a little depending on who could make the pass first. We hit the 2 mile in 10:37, which wasn't bad I had hoped we had picked it up a little more than 5:17. I didn't get worked up about it though and as we headed toward the River Loop Balto took the lead to pass a big group. I think we picked it up another notch here as we were rolling up on people really quickly the rest of the race. As we went around the River Loop I started get the excitement of the last mile and tried to kick it up another gear. I'm not sure of the 3 mile split but I started to leave Balto a little before it and was feeling great. I caught a few more guys before the hill and then really attacked the hill. As I came out of the woods on the way up, I saw Cholo just around the top corner headed to victory with 4 guys between him and I, but all closer to me. I hoped I could catch at least a couple of them and dreamed of getting 2nd but knew it would be too much ground to make up. I caught a St Johns runner right before the downhill but he passed me back on the downhill and really didn't let up after that. I chased him the rest of the way but he finished really well. He was able to lead me past a Hamline runner though and to a 5th place finish (Top 6 the last 6 years). I ran 20:47 which means my 2nd half was 10:10 and that was probably a negative split as well. This was a much better race than last year and has me excited for a few more cross country meets. The Alumni team also ran really well with definitely our best team performance based on time. Also, congrats to the women Alumni on a really great showing both finishing well and having a large group participate.