Notes
Another solid race at nirca regionals, was able to get the win our home course. I felt like we took it out pretty slow through the first K-ish or two before separating a bit from the field with Rob and the kid from Wisconsin. We all stayed together back into the hills the second time and the Wisco kid started moving hard on the steep downhill just after 4k. Him and Rob kinda got away from me on the last couple hills and I was just fighting to keep them within reach. Once we got out of the hills I tried to pick it up and catch them, but they must've picked it up too because I didn't really gain on them much. Then around 6k they started coming back to me and I moved by Rob and caught up to the Wisco kid.
I tried to just sit on him because we were running into a pretty stiff head wind, but then he tried to go behind me and use me as a wind block. So I started slowing down big time to try to let Rob catch back up to us, but once the Wisco kid realized what I was doing he cussed me out and threw in a big surge to gap me again. So I kept my pace and rhythm steady and was able to slowly reel him back in and pull even at 7k. I passed him and tried to break him but he stayed in contact out of the woods and with about 300m to go he passed me amd got a little gap but then about 75 meters before the fence I started my kick and was able to pass and break him by the time we got to the fence and take the win.
There were no splits out on the course which kind of sucked, I was pretty surprised at how fast the time was based on the difficulty of the course and how easy it felt like we were running the first 4k so intermediate splits would've been interesting to know. It felt good to reaffirm that I still have the ability to really crank it up at the end to throw in a huge kick when I need to. Good day individually.
The team got the win as well, which was sweet especially because of how high nirca was on Illinois. Excited to see what we can do at nationals. I know it'll be really really tough to beat Rob again, hopefully we can go 1-2 and have Will up there with us and get another good team showing.