Notes
Luther All American. Still had a cold but was feeling pretty good on the warmup and wasn't concerned with it for the race. I wanted to get out faster than the last two years when I have been in a mess during the first mile so I burned a little extra energy right away and got into the top 5 by the first corner. A couple guys at the front were really separating themselves during the first mile which kind of concerned me since I didn't know who they were but I just assumed they would come back at some point. The hill felt pretty rough and I was a little concerned with my more ambitious game plan as I went through the mile in 5:05 and my legs still weren't in a rhythm. At the beginning of the river loop everything started to click though and I started to pull away from the LaCrosse guy I had been going back and forth with. The leader faded pretty quickly and I took the lead right before the two mile mark (10:10). Decided to keep rolling ahead at this point and try to establish a solid lead. This went pretty well thanks to all the cheering in the prairie and I went through the 3 mile in 15:15 still feeling pretty good. At this point I had a pretty solid lead and didn't feel like attacking the last mile too much. I kept my pace up but basically just got to the top and bottom of the hill without really attacking either. Probably slowed a little the last mile but didn't think it was as much as the time indicated. This was confirmed when Steve said the course was about 7 seconds long. Had a pretty impressive alumni showing with 3 guys in the top 10 and a team score of 74. Also, good to have a lot of guys back running in the race. It was a fun day as always and I'm excited for a couple more cross country races this fall.