Dec. 8 - U.S. Club XC Nationals (67 miles/week plus 2.5 hours cross training)

PM: 10k XC race, 255th place, 36:21, 13 miles total (including morning shake-out)

I can say without hesitation that this is one of the most difficult races I've ever done. All of the snow in Ohio melted, making the entire course a huge mud pit. Plus, we were the last of five races that day, so everything was incredibly chewed up. The entire run was as intense as any championship college race.

The almost first two miles were chaotic, and I may have lost my cool a little bit. This admittedly may have not been the best "rust-buster" race, because my racing senses were a little dull. Moving anywhere was tough in what amounted to a sea of bodies (~450 guys). I freaked out too much--my confidence was a little shaken from all of the time I missed, even though I know I'm reasonably fit--and all of the mud and ice flying in my face just shook me up more. Thus, I wasted a lot of energy in the first half of the race running through some of the worst parts of the course: ankle deep, soul-sapping mud. I'd try to cover someone's move, but then I'd hit a mud hole and would find myself running backward again and have to negotiate a hay barrel to boot. The entire race was spent reading myself, the other runners, and the course itself...but, hey, that's cross country for you. It's hard for a reason. The time is supposed to be irrelevant, and it was. Times across the board were a full three minutes slower than the road or track.

So I really felt like I didn't start "racing" until about 4.5 miles into it, when I was already well into oxygen debt but was able to find some new gears and snap out of it and reel some guys back in. I started closing early, and I finished ahead of some guys who I've never beaten, and close to some guys who have run a lot faster than me at other distances. So even though I felt like the event was one of those blow-up, did-you-catch-the-number-of-that-bus kind of races, my performance ultimately wasn't all that bad. I have to remind myself that this is really the beginning of the return to running, training, and racing, and since that's the case I don't consider this a bad start. It just wasn't a great one, either. 

The race and the entire trip with the GRC guys was a blast; don't get me wrong. I've never experienced conditions like that, and you only get so many races as deep as that one was. In the end, covered in mud, dejected and exhausted, I above all just felt glad to be back to racing.