September 9 (88 miles/week)

AM: Garrin XC 5k - 16:43, 12th place - 15 miles

After a long warm up on the course with Alex and Sam, I jumped into the first race of the fall season in one of the PAUSATF XC series events. Despite the relatively small field of about 100 guys, these races draw the Northern CA competitive teams and are thus pretty, well, competitive.

The course in the southern East Bay hills was as tough as advertised, featuring a flat first and last 800m but lots of shorter but steeper hills and tight turns in between. Given that I wasn't that confident in my fitness going into the race, I feel like I actually competed well, even fighting off a WVTC runner in the last quarter mile. It's not every day that I out kick someone, and though I'm still on the upswing to racing shape, I was happy to fight a good fight.

I struck out on a long cool down with Sam and a few of the Transports guys, but about 30 minutes in I started to seriously bonk. I made it about 50 minutes before calling it a day, quaffing down some water and inhaling a Quiznos sub with Sam.