Notes
Liberty Leagues 2014 @ SPAC! Pretty good race, can't say I'm disappointed. Team took a reeeasonably close 2nd to SLU. Comments to come!
Okayyy focus pre-race was all about staying relaxed / not psyched out and executing in the race just like any other hard day. Temps were pretty cool but the ground was nice and hard and there was no precipitation or wind, a good day to race. I did a good job of staying calm beforehand and didn't really pay attention to how I was feeling during the warmup or strides or anything.
Got off the line feeling nice and relaxed as was the plan, focused on perception of effort rather than strict pace. Moved up pretty quickly and was surprised to find myself coming through the mile in 7th on the team @ 5:17. I was running right off the pack of Brian/Bobby/Steve/Tyler and feeling great, I had expected to be further back but since I was feeling so good it was all cool. We were further back then we wanted but with a lot of race left and a lot of guys who would presumably be coming back. Brian and Bobby started pulling away after two miles, I hung right with Tyler and Steve probably until just before mile 3. Going up the hill I eased up a bit because I was nervous I would get rocked, picked it back up at the top but there was a decent sized gap now. Worked to bridge it through the 4th mile, but again backed off going up Ferndale and even though I got back onto pace at the top I was a good ways back from them again and never made it up. Last mile was tough fo sure, just tried to focus on the mechanics of running fast but it must have been a pretty slow last mile. Legs felt like wood on the last field, try as I might I could not turn over any faster. BURNED once again by Cish in the last 100, no response. Can't say I hadn't envisioned that scenario many many times before...
Good race, hard to say I could have done much better today. I think that mayyybe if I had stayed tighter to Steve and Tyler on the penultimate hill I could have gotten dragged along a bit more, but no guarantees, I was going pretty hard the whole time. At the same time I think I was a little taken by surprised by how GOOD I felt for the first half - 2/3rds of the race, so maybe could have run with a little more confidence, the race definitely didn't go the way I had expected. Still, probably my best to date XC race. 1:40 faster than my previous best SPAC time, although frankly slower than I had hoped to run today. Not perfect, but a good run.
Great races all around from the guys today, we're almost ready to go toe-to-toe with SLU and in two weeks we'll be there, I think we are totally in the driver's seat for the rest of the season.
LL's 2011 (Vassar): 31:06, 89th/118
LL's 2012 (Clarkson): 28:18, 71st/131
LL's 2013 (Bard): 27:40, 53rd/125
LL's 2014 (RPI): 26:48, 25th/114