Notes
Hashawha 3 mile XC Race for Westminster Road runners club.
I was told the 2nd mile was really tough with hills, so I played it conservative for once. I stayed with the lead pack in about 7th or 8th place for about the first mile, which we went through in a slow 6:30. I felt fine and the first couple hills didn't affect me.
Then we go over a couple of steep hills, and I passed a couple people. The trail then became single file and both the up hills and downhills got intense. Some downhills were helpful but mostly they were technical and steep. However, my recent hill work paid off, because I kept passing people one by one. I went through mile 2 in a ridiculously slow 7:30.
At some point after mile 2, I had no one left in sight to pass, and so I figured the next pack must be a good bit ahead. I tried to catch them anyway. Then hit a fork and wasn't sure whether to keep straight or turn left so I backtracked and luckily the person behind me said to keep going straight, so that was some lost time there. Probably about 10 seconds I would guess.
It turns out there was no pack in front of me, I was leading and had no idea. The last roughly 100 meters was on a moderately steep downhill, and so I kicked it in pretty hard and barreled through the finish line and had quite a hard time coming to a stop. I found out that I won only after talking to people at the finish.
Very fun race overall, probably could have finished a bit faster but it was an awkward race. Next time should go better since I'll have more of a feel for it.