Notes
First collegiate XC race ever! And first 8k. Ran the Engineer's Cup at Franklin Park, vs WPI and MIT. Yan was there, but he couldn't run- stress reaction in his foot. Both of my parents and Z and Wes and Joe were there too, which was awesome. Pre race goal was to break 29 minutes.
Plenty of time to warm up. Did a 16 minute jog with the team, two 90 second "cruises", then went through my skips and stuff before doing a few strides. The race got out, and I allowed myself to slip towards the back, and settled into a spot there a few WPI guys back from Joe F and Andrew. The first mile felt pretty good, came through in 5:30. Made a good move and passed the WPI guys, bringing myself right behind the RPI kids. Never made up the gap though- mistake. Came through the second mile in 11:30- the hill hurt. Third mile even slower, came through 5k in 18:30ish- still pretty solid, but slowing down. Really did try to close the gap on Andrew in the Wilderness, but couldn't gain any ground. Two WPI kids passed me, and I didn't have the energy to go with them. Continued to try and reel in Andrew, but then really struggled the second time up Bear Cage, getting passed by one or two more WPI kids. I finished pretty strong, although I think I probably could have broken 30 if I had really opened up earlier. The bigger issue, however, was keeping up a decent pace through the middle segment of the race. The first mile of the race was ran well- 5:30 is a reasonable pace for me to come through in. However, I need to then close the gap on Joe and Andrew and work with them over the rest of the race- they both ran times that I would have been more happy with. Will get my chance next weekend at Saratoga.