I was totally undecided on which shoes to wear. It hadn't been raining so there wasn’t much mud or standing water, but there was a lot of dew in the grass and very sketchy terrain. I put on my racing flats to see how they felt in the grass. It was a little slick, but I decided on the flats due to a concrete road crossing (where spikes are like nails on a chalkboard.)
We headed up the hill to the start and lined up in the starting box. Our coach came by and gave us a little talk and then it was time to get ready. We were told to stay still until the gun.
BANG! And we were off. The start was down a lonnnng grassy hill (you can kind of see this in the first picture where we are emerging from the fog.) It was crazy slippery in addition to the usual crazy XC start. I played it safe here and just stayed consistent as the trail narrowed and then turned into single track along a ridge. This was super sketchy. There were tons of roots and the trail was really rutted. That in combination with the inability to see ahead of you very well because of all the competitors made it very technical.
My plan was simply to go out conservative, attack the hills, recover on the down hills and attempt to close any gaps that happen on the “flats” (that didn’t really exist.)
I got boxed in for the first half of the first loop. Also, the insole of my shoe was starting to come loose and creep out the back of my shoe. Literally every step I took, the insole would creep. At first I panicked and tried to surge on the sides of the trails but then I came to my senses and opted to sit tight and be patient. Finally, things started breaking up a bit and I passed one of my teammates. She is faster than me, so it had me a little concerned passing her so early. But I was in a rhythm so I just went with it. I surged on every single hill and recovered on the downhills. I had previously though myself as a reasonable good downhill runner, but I was definitely a little slow here. I didn’t try to fix that though. What I was doing seemed to be working.
I passed my coach and he gave me some words of encouragement. Basically told me I looked nice and relaxed. We surged into the last hill on the first loop and I passed another teammate. She tried to hang on for a minute but the surge happened on a long grinding uphill and she dropped off. Insole creep status: halfway out of shoe

I was feeling pretty good but just kept checking myself. I could see another teammate in the distance and was slowly gaining on her. This was someone that is HANDS DOWN WAY faster than I, I am talking she runs about 5+ VDOTs ahead of me in our team practices. That is the funny thing about XC. Fast is certainly a component, but so is strong. The two are distinctly different. I kept the rhythm, surge, recover, surge recover then eventually passed my teammate at the close of the second loop.
I was struggling at this point. “One more loop, one more loop…” I kept telling myself. I passed one more teammate. And although my confidence was high, I was terrified. I didn’t want to look back. I was in denial that I could pass these women that are so much better than me. I ran, literally, like someone was chasing me. I continued to attack the uphills but the recovery didn’t ever seem to be enough on the downhills. I was gasping for breath. My mouth was salivating like crazy. I zoned out for just a moment. Telling myself it was alright to relax a bit but quickly snapped out of it and pressed on. At this point my insole was almost all of the way out of my shoe, I could not only feel it flapping around but because my shoes were only 2,8 ounces WITH the insoles, I could feel every little variation in the terrain. “Just a little bit further. Hang on hang on.” I had to keep telling myself. I rounded a sharp corner with about 400 M to go before the finish. A teammate who wasn’t racing screamed, “GO GO GO GO GO NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO RELAX. FINISH THIS RACE!!!” So I gave it my all up the hill. Now the finishing shoot was approaching. About 100 M left and about 15 meters ahead of me was another girl (A DIV I collegiate I might add.) Someone in the crowd yelled, “You are a scoring runner. BEAT HER!!!” (In XC scoring is determined by summing the finishing places. So, literally every place matters.)
I don’t know where this came from, or why some random person in the crowd was able to bring it out in me but I dug deeper than I ever thought possible. I ran so hard. My eyes were closed, I am pretty sure drool was spewing out of my mouth and my arms were pumping but I beat that girl over the finish line. By .5 seconds officially. (also, my insole was still hanging on by a thread haha!)

I got a 1 second PR at the distance. That doesn't really tell any of the story, but it means at least something.

We have 2 more races and so long as I don't screw it up, I may make the elite team for Nationals. It's best 3 our of 4 and I have already scored well enough for the A team in the last 2 races. One more!!!!


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3 races, 8 days :)

Cooled down with teammates and then headed over to watch the men's race


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Also,I need to figure out how to channel that competitive spirit that I got at the end of that race on a regular basis