PA XC Championships

One of the biggest events of the year in the Bay Area running community are the PA Cross Country Championsips in Golden Gate Park. It's not the biggest in terms of people running - very far from it - but definitely one of the best in terms of competition and excitement. Held the Sunday before Thanksgiving each year, the PA Champs wraps up our fall cross country circuit, as well as attracting some out of town runners. Also, my parents were in town for Thanksgiving, so the saw me race for the first time in a while.

Heading into the meet, I had a very heavy race load through the Fall between running most of the XC races, as well as a couple longer road races. I took a chance by racing hard at the Clarksburg 30K just two weeks prior. My rough rule of thumb for race recovery, (i.e. the number of days until I'm ready for another hard effort) is to take the distance (of the race i just ran) and multiply it by 2 / 3. That's a rough rule, so it's plus or minus a day or two.

I was pretty beat up after the 30K. It's not so much that my legs were tired, but my body was tired. Anytime I tried to push myself - or even ran up a big hill I just found my heartrate picking up and my lungs working more than usual.

But what do you know, on the Thursday before the race, I felt like I had my legs fully under me. I was ready to go! My rule of thumb predicted 12 days to recover, and I made it in 11 (with three days to spare).

The course is a deceptively tough 2 mile loop, which you run 3 times. It starts in a meadow, heads downhill on a dirt path, flattens onto a windy almost single track trail, opens into another meadow, jumps over a log, heads uphill on another single track, opens on a flat & wider dirt hill that ultimately heads back uphill, then a sharp left back to the original downhill dirt path, then the loop ends with a detour into the meadow where you start & finish. And thanks to rain throughout the weekend, the course was very sloppy.

You run loop 3 times, and there's no spot to settle in or get into a rhythm like you would on the road or track. Constantly turning, changing surfaces, shifting gears, etc. Some runners hate that... I love it!

When the gun went off I jumped off the line dashing through the meadow. Todd yelled "JAMEY RELAX." It was good advice. I tucked in a few spots behind him and let quite a few other runners go out too fast in front of me. I stayed pretty far back in the pack, but relaxed, through the first mile. As we hit the first single track train and the meadow around the mile mark, I'm thinking this was the point that I started picking people off & moving up in the 4 mile fall race. But this time I just wasn't feeling it. In fact my legs were feeling pretty heavy. As I ran back uphill I just wasn't happy with how I felt this early. But remember the lesson from earlier in the season - just run!

I finished up the first of three loops without changing my position very much. But the legs were just so heavy I wasn't sure how I could move up. Todd & the pack he was with had slipped away by 30 or 40 meters. But as I left the meadow to start the 2nd loop, I realized that even though my legs felt flat, I wasn't breathing hard at all. Maybe I wasn't going to blow up afterall. So as we head back downhill I look up for the next runner ahead of me. It was Gus Gibbs of the Rebels. It took me more than half a mile to catch him, but I finally caught up. Gus said "what's up" and we ran together for a bit. Then I looked up at the next runner ahead & caught him pretty quickly. Each time I caught somebody, I was already looking at the next runner. Pretty soon I was moving through the field.
















The PA Championship field is a lot deeper than our normal weekly races, so I don't know a lot of the runners around me, but green jersey, white jersey, red jersey, I just keep digging to catch and pass the other runners. From the 2 mile mark to the 5 mile, I probably moved up 15 spots. Just before the 5 mile mark, I see the 3rd man on the Rebels. As I'm currently 4th for West Valley, this was an important guy to catch for our team standings. I catch the rebel, then I look up and see teammate Todd Rose right in front of me.

I've always liked intra-team competition. It's a friendly competition, and one that can make us all better runners. You train together, race together, hangout together. But you still want to beat each other. Todd had been my best training partner over the past year. Our workouts are pretty similar, but he's such a good racer, and despite being close a few times, I'd never beaten him. Could I really catch him, pass, and keep going?

Just past the 5 mile mark, I pull up to Todd. And I don't know if there was a mental block of catching a guy who'd I'd never been able to beat, if Todd was responding to runners right in front of him, or if I finally hit some fatigue from my mid-race pace. But as soon as I catch him, I feel myself slow down a bit. As we start heading uphill in the last loop, and I'm just trying to maintain contact. Todd is there, as well two others including our top runner - Jonathan Charlesworth - who is not at his best having recently been sick.

When we head up the last hill, I lean in to give it one last shot to get myself past these three guys. All three are in contact, but Todd leads the group with a hard surge over the crest of the hill. My plan was to make that same move when I crested, but since Todd got there 10 or meters ahead of me, he opened up a gap & was pulling away. So I set my sight on Jonathan and passed him as we made the sharp left.

With about a quarter of a mile to go I completely open my stride up and sprint down the hill. I wasn't sure if I could catch anybody, but I had to try, plus there could always be someone coming from behind. When we hit the last meadow I'd made up some ground on Todd. I find another gear, then another, and then somehow another! I'm reeling Todd in quickly, but the finish line is flying toward us. With one last surge I catch him about 2 stride lengths from the line, and beat him by about a foot. I hadn't been able to kick like that since sometime in college! A funny moment was when my Dad was at the finish yelling GO JAMEY, GO JAMEY, YOU CAN CATCH HIM!" I had to ask him not to alert my competition next time I'm trying to catch them at the finish :)

Final result was 29th place in 32:45 (5:22 pace since the race was slightly more than 6 miles). I was almost a minute faster than last year despite the very sloppy conditions. West Valley finished 3rd in the meet to wrap up 3rd overall for the season (just ahead of the Rebels in both the meet and the final standings) What a great way to cap off what had been a very satisfying cross country season.

After the race I hung out in the park with the other West Valley runners, as well as a large group from the Rebels. It was a great feeling to be celebrating with both my teammates, plus friends I had made from other teams. As I've said before, running has really become fun again!

I wasn't sure how it would go, but I tried a quick turn around to race a super competitive 5K road race 4 days later on Thanksgiving morning. The 5K distance has been a bit of a monkey on my back as I feel certain I'm ready to run in the mid 15 minute range or faster, but have been stuck in the low 16s. Thanksgiving wasn't meant to be my day. I felt really tired running after the XC race. I ran the opening mile of the 5K in 4:50. Even though I was well off the pace of most the field, that split still buried me. I tried to keep it up, but I kept going slower and slower, sputtering across the line in 16:15. I wasn't happy, but I know that's no indication of my fitness. I'll have my day at that distance. I guess this time the 2 / 3 rule of thumb was off by a day.

After the 5K, I was able to really focus on training for the first time in a while as I got a week and a half of solid runs and workouts. One highlight was pacing a friend through the first lap of an 800 meter in 56 seconds! I had no idea I could still run that fast!

Now I'm on my way to Kentucky for the USATF Club XC Nationals with West Valley. My parents and both sisters are meeting me in Lexington.