Rochester was beautiful at the end of November. The air was crisp; the trees were naked; all the leaves were sitting on the hard ground waiting to be crunched. It was awesome. Goals for the race: 1) Run a faster pace than PA's. 2) Don't get last. 3) Break 26 minutes. My co-workers thought that my second goal was stupid. "You're not going to get last." they said. That's what they thought. This is Nationals, not a fun run. My race was at 1pm which is the same as 10am my time. I didn't try to acclimate to the new timezone because most of my races for the season were around 10, so it was perfect to go to bed at 12:30am and wake up at 8:30am every morning. (We had been there since Thursday and the race was on Saturday.)
The 6k course was 2.5 loops of flat and a few rolling hills on grass, with some muddy parts. It cut across an asphalt trail 4 times each loop. Despite that, I decided to wear spikes... cross-country spikes. I think they were over 1/2" long. I had never worn long spikes for a cross-country race before... They turned out GREAT! That was an awesome decision. Running across the asphalt wasn't a problem as the spikes seems to sink right into it, and my grip on the soggy grass was excellent. I took turns without even worrying about slipping. Ahhhhhh.... Next year, I just need to remember to buy Asics spikes... I felt a little guilty about wearing Nike while representing Asics. Well, maybe that's why I finished so far back.... ;) Speaking of finishing, I met my goals. My time was 25:52, my pace was 6:56, and I finished 9th from last, beating 8 people. Heh.
Next season, nationals is at Golden Gate, which is the same course as PA's. (see previous post).
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