Notes
Early Saturday morning I headed out with Yarrow and Steve to scout out the conference course at Pickard Park in Indianola. The course was AWESOME. Steve says the best conference course he's seen in his 10 years at Luther. A true cross country course with lots of hills and work, but with good championship footing. Yarrow and I ran the course a few times and Steve biked along beside us, and we continuously talked about the terrain we were seeing at the different parts of the venue. Before leaving Yarrow and I ran backwards from the finish line and measured out a few significant distances from distinct features of the course: 300m to the finish from the final intersection, 1000m from the hairpin right turn, etc.
The sun was rising towards the end of our time and the few clouds in the sky were a spectacular pink color. The area surrounding the park is rolling prairies and some woods, and it was a glorious sunrise and a glorious morning to be out early.
We drove back to the hotel and met the team for their morning shake out run. It was fun to be on the other side of that event, having already run a decent amount and scouted out some things for the morning's races. After the shake out Yarrow and I ran another mile and a half or so to get in 5 for the morning.
I'm giving myself at least a mile and half or running during the races, and I did a cool down with Tricia, Lauren, erin, yarrow, and a few others. 8 total on the day.