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| 1st lap of 5. Ken Goglas to my left, me wearing camo head band in honor of Andrew Capizzi. Dense racing over rough ground! Photo by Michael Scott |
I write to inspire and amuse. When you race with poor tactics, it is hard to talk about it. But I have to be honest, we have to look at the ugly truth. I started way too hard in this race. I told myself "Run 50-80m hard and then settle in". Given that the first turn was a straight line and about 350-400m out, around a tree into a 90. The starting line was not that wide for 400+ runners; I figured this made sense. Instead, I probably kept rolling for more like 150-200m into the steep incline and went into oxygen debt and ran like shit for all but the last mile. Arguably I ran well in the last 1000m, but was pained to see a clump of about 20 runners that were just a bit too far ahead for me to catch. It's a hard thing traveling to an important race and flat out blowing it. I should know better, I'm 32yrs old, I've been racing for 18yrs. But shit, I'm human too, right?
The upside is, a handful of my teammates had a pretty good race, and good for them! Two Men and One Woman inside the top 100 finishers (Chris Johnson, Ken Goglas and Cheyenne Ogletree). From where I battled within the race, I saw Matt Eder, Joe Zeoli, and Will Appman all run well. Joe kept a steady pace throughout, picking off the fast starters (like me). Matt battled with Will and I in the last 600m and ultimately laid down the hammer to outrun us both. And Matt, Will and I all passed 2-3 men each in the last 200m I believe. Also, all 18 men and 12 women, and 2 coahes, and Bill Zeoli(Joe's Dad), had a good time in the town of Bend, and just being around all of the other runners. I'd never been to Oregon, so it was a dream to go for a Championship race. Honestly, I never dreamed I would have a chance to race in Oregon on a team in a race like this. We really had a lot of fun!
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| About 50m from the finish, and yes, I beat #1752, his beard was no match for mine. Photo compliments of Michael Scott. |
This was the toughest XC course that I have ever run. It was designed with intentional contour and challenges that resembled a cyclocross or motocross course. It was a lot of fun being in a race where you can hear the ground rumbling under 800+ spiked shoes. 3600ft over sea level and a tilted, twisted, hilly, muddy course were tough. I got my assed kicked. 280th of 410, my time was 36:20. Next yr friends...next yr.
And now one more photo, because this is what teammates do:
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| About 2seconds before this, Paul went down, but Josh and Matt helped him up quickly. Ted is on the far right. In a crazy race like this, it's good to have some teammates nearby. That's XC! Compliments of Michael Scott |
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