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| Winner, winner |
The Gainesville UNG campus is only 18 or so miles from my apartment, which might sound far but everything is so spread out down here that's actually super close. It's also 17.5 highway miles, so that helps. I got to the campus around 7:30 with about an hour to kill before the start of the race. Because it was so wet, Tim Schroer moved registration and the finish into the parking garage, so I was able to stay relatively dry before the gun. He also moved the start from the big lower field to the road next to the field, which was great for me. Those big open field cross country starts have never been my strong suit.
After jogging around for a bit and trying to find a bathroom (no campus buildings were open...portos...woof) I found Mitch Novy doing the same and trying to stay loose in the rain. We chatted a little bit about our race plan and stretched out while we waited for everyone to make their way to the start. Mitch is contesting all of the short courses in the series, so for him this was a 2.5 mile race. His plan was to run together until we hit the split just after the mile then try to finish off anyone that stayed with him in the final long flat before the finish. Having someone to run with for a mile or so sounded good to me, so we made our way to the start to get things fired up.
The new start presented a small challenge, a narrow concrete bridge about 20 yards from the starting line, it was a little unfortunate for some of the people further back, but there was really no way to avoid it. Even if they pushed the start back, it would have been a downhill sprint and that would have been mass chaos. Mitch was a little nervous about the bridge, but I assured him that we'd be fine. I've run enough of these races and so have most of the rest of the field that everyone has a pretty good gauge on the early pace, with the exception of the occasional froggish high schooler.
At the gun, Mitch took off like Chip in that Chappelle skit. I was a few yards behind and the aforementioned froggish youngster when by me like I was standing still and instantly opened a small gap on Mitch. I my head, I said 'I'm either going to catch him before the mile or he's going to run away from everyone, so don't panic...but I kind of hope he's running the short race'.
I quickly settled into a good rhythm and started eating into their advantage on the flat double track that traces the outline of the campus along a set of rail road tracks. The double track makes a left past the track and less than a half mile into race you pass a set of tennis courts then a makeshift outdoor amphitheater. I caught Mitch at the tennis courts and the young buck shortly after the amphitheater. Despite a couple of slips on a few of the off camber turns, I pulled into the lead as we made the turn to head back towards the start where we would dip into the woods.
Mitch came around me to keep the pace high in a effort to distance the kid behind us. We rolled stride for stride through the mile and all the way to the split. I don't get to run with people and a lot of these races are single track so that was pretty cool, to be side by side rolling. I felt like I was back in college hammering back from a workout at Keene High. Mitch went on to win the short race by a solid margin over 17-year old Alex Peacock (the young kid behind us).
I broke left over a small bridge and into the woods. I was cautious over the wooden planks and in and out of the corners due to the mud but it became clear fairly early that I was out to a good lead. Once you get into the woods on the UNG course there are a lot of tight turns. It's pretty flat but the twists and turns make keeping up a rhythm difficult. I focused on trying to open up my stride were I could and trying to be quick through the tight sections. This added up to a lot of speeding up and slowing down but it worked out pretty well, since by the time I came through three miles there was no one in sight behind me.
It's always difficult to keep pushing the pace when you are in no man's land. It's a little easier when you are out front because there's always that voice in the back of your head that's worried about getting caught, so I tried to tap into that and keep pushing. I was moving well on the long down hill that takes you from the back section of trails back to double track access trail and figured that I'd start to catch the back end of the 2.5 milers before finishing the climb back up to the mountain bike parking lot. I grinded my way up the hill then started working on the few people I could see up ahead of me.
Once I was back down on the double track about a half mile from the finish I tried to open it up again. To my delight, my hamstring actually felt okay and wasn't too tight, that would change at the finish. I knew I had the win sewed up, but I still tried to catch all of the 2.5 milers ahead of me. The change in finish location left us with a nasty little paved up hill back to the parking garage, which was a little tougher than I thought it would be, so making the right hand turn into the parking garage was a relief. I strided it out and crossed the line in 34:23. That time is a little slow, but given the change in course and sloppy, muddy conditions it was right about where I thought I'd be.
After a lot of travel the week before, I was happy that my hamstring felt okay during the race. It still tightened up afterwards, but I think I am getting to the point where I can start upping my mileage as along as I stick to my work in the weight room. Right now, that's my big struggle is my lack of mileage. It's difficult for me to race well on low mileage. If I'm doing good workouts, I can run alright in the 50s, but right lately I've been in the 30s, so I need to work on that.
After the race I caught up with Mitch for a two mile cool down. We finished up and made our way to the awards where I took home a specially made Dirty Spokes Merlot from Chateau Elan winery. I'm not a big wine guy (or a wine guy at all really) but I thought that was one of the cooler prizes I've ever gotten at a race. I also got a coupon for a free VO2 Max test which I'm interested in checking out. I will keep you posted if and when I make it to the lab for that.
Mitch and I hit the trails for another three miles, which gave me 10 for the day. All in all it was a good day and a good start to the spring for me. I'm a little behind where I wanted to be, but if I can keep my hamstring in check I still think I can run well later in the spring and summer.
As always, here's what it looked like on Strava:
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