NIRCA Nationals Recap

The team got back late last night from Charlotte so I decided to wait and reflect a little before putting my thoughts in print. Some pros of the race:

1) The obvious pro is that I won the race. It was a relatively easy win, both because I felt great and the competition was not a top-heavy as I thought it might have been. I'm glad I didn't have to put forth a complete effort to win, since I have an even bigger race next weekend that certainly will require a 100% effort.

2) The course and weather were awesome. McAlpine Creek park's XC course is perfect for fast times, as it is basically a cinder trail with a small hill but otherwise totally flat. The weather was also perfect, mid 50s and sunny with no wind.

The start

The finish

3) The organization of the race was top-notch. From the way the course was set up and marked, to the way the start and finish were handled to the way the results/check-in areas were done was all very professional and definitely better than what I expected based on how Regionals was done. I was definitely impressed with that and had a good experience at my only NIRCA race of the year.

Now for the cons:

1) As a team we didn't run quite as well as we were hoping for. We got 4th, after tying with Minnesota and squeaking ahead in the tiebreaker. We thought we would be able to get top 3 but some guys on the team didn't run quite what they wanted, and the whole race was a lot deeper than we expected. 

2) I doubt the course is accurate. The times were all extremely (unbelievably) fast, and there was another starting line set about 200m back from where we started. I'm not sure if that was supposed to be where started, and they just moved us up to fit more people on the start, but I do think the course was short. I don't think this is a big problem, since cross country is all about place and not times, but on a day and course like that it would have been nice to have run a fast time for eight thousand meters.

EDIT: The course director replied to an inquisitory email regarding this course and confirmed my suspicions. She said the course was about 150-200m short, so I will adjust my time by the 35 seconds it took me to cover the real start line to the fake start line at what felt like race pace. 

Like I said up top, I am really happy with the race. It went about as well as possible, except it would have been nice to know it was an 8k and to run a legit 8k PR, but still, the win was the thing I was after.