Thursday, November 10, 2011

Obligatory Pre-NIRCA Nationals Post

Tomorrow morning the club team leaves for Charlotte, dark and early. It's at least a 9 hour drive so we'll have plenty of time to think about the race. As for me, here are my preliminary thoughts:

- I am in it to win it. With that in mind, I'm going to try and run the smartest race. For me, that means a sit-and-kick type of race where I hide in the pack, cover any moves, and kick only when I know I can hold it all the way to the line. The race will probably go out fast since there are so many people (almost 600!) and that means I'll probably have to go out of my comfort zone for the first mile, but that's just how cross country races go. Just one of the reasons I like track more. 

- I would like to run a fast time, but obviously the win is more important. The course is supposed to be super fast, with a packed gravelly surface and very flat, and it's supposed to be good weather so if the competition is fast I will hopefully be pulled to an 8k pr (current PR = 25:00). 

- Speaking of competition: I have no idea what kind of competition will show up on race day, but the current favorite is a guy who's reliable 8k pr is 25:37 on the roads (he has a 24:33 pr from XC but that course is known to be short) and a 15:07 track 5k. Given these credentials, I'm not expecting a huge challenge but I'm definitely not discounting the possibility of other guys like myself coming out of the woodwork.  

All in all I am excited for this race. Training has been going well and I think I'm pretty well tuned to race well over this distance. I do wish I had a better handle on the competition but we'll see how it all shakes out come Saturday at 11 am. 

No comments:

Post a Comment