Battle Royale
DNR again yesterday. No real good reason other than I didn't go out in the morning and my day was too booked to squeeze it in otherwise.
Today was the "Battle Royale," a cross country meet put on by Bob Schwelm and the Bryn Mawr Running Store at Belmont Plateau. Its mainly a challenge match between them and the rival Philadelphia Runner store team, but it is set in the context of an open meet that is one event among a series of high school races. And there is actually team prize money three deep.
PACTC put a team together for this run. Kevin and I both ran out to Belmont Plateau, about 3 miles, and met Chuck Shields, Bob Rimkis, Neil Clarke, Matt Vavala and Jeff Hayes. We figured we had a shot at 3rd, and got more confident when it didn't look like there was a fourth team around.
The plateau is a legendary cross country course in the Philadelphia region, and has two killer hills - Flagpole hill and Parachute hill. The course today was four miles, 2 times around a 2 mile loop that incorporates these two hills. My strategy was not to let these hills get me. This was a good race for me right now, as running such a course pretty much ensures that time doesn't matter and that you concentrate more on place. The temperature was easily in the 80's by the 10:30 starting time and the sun was beating down.
The race starts and immediately goes up Flagpole. As we run up the hill the runners sort themselves and Chuck is a bit ahead with me, Kevin and Bob running kind of together. We looked like we were working as a team but really didn't feel that way. I'm holding my place and saving myself for the first Parachute. Mile 1 marker passes in 5:20, this feels fast like the marker is short. I pass Kevin on the ascent of Parachute and then go head to head with Rimkis on the descent, finally passing him going up a little bump of a hill and accelerating on the following downhill for a small lead. Rimkis hangs on to me for awhile and surges a few times, and I match. This continues until about three miles, and I open up a lead that I hold going up parachute. The descent is almost as hard as the going up, as I'm shuffling my feet in fast motion just to maintain some control. After this its a straightaway out of the woods and towards the finish. I can't see the next runner ahead of me and cruise in to 16th place. 24:19 for the 4 mile course.
I'll take it. Jason Bull, a BMRC runner, finished about 30 seconds ahead of me, depending who is in what shape and what distance we run, we alternate finishing ahead of each other. Chuck finished about 45 seconds ahead of me and Matt, after a fast start, hung on to finish about 5 seconds ahead of Chuck. Rimkis, Kevin, and Jeff finished immediately behind me. So we got 12, 14, 16-19 places. Very solid team effort that got us $100 to split. I was curious to see how I'd do against Kevin, who's been running very well on the track all year, but that kind of training does not lead to logging many miles. So while he's in much better shape than me, I think my training, despite its inconsistencies, is better suited for XC.
Lots of other thoughts like that going around in my mind. I'm in racing mode, and looking at who I can gun for if I get my training more regular. This is good, cheetah is getting hungry. We'll see how it goes. Cross country meets are fun, teams all hanging around in groups; lots of waiting around in a daylong event. I stuck around for awhile and ran home again for a 3 mile cooldown.
Total of 10 miles and a good morning's work.
Today was the "Battle Royale," a cross country meet put on by Bob Schwelm and the Bryn Mawr Running Store at Belmont Plateau. Its mainly a challenge match between them and the rival Philadelphia Runner store team, but it is set in the context of an open meet that is one event among a series of high school races. And there is actually team prize money three deep.
PACTC put a team together for this run. Kevin and I both ran out to Belmont Plateau, about 3 miles, and met Chuck Shields, Bob Rimkis, Neil Clarke, Matt Vavala and Jeff Hayes. We figured we had a shot at 3rd, and got more confident when it didn't look like there was a fourth team around.
The plateau is a legendary cross country course in the Philadelphia region, and has two killer hills - Flagpole hill and Parachute hill. The course today was four miles, 2 times around a 2 mile loop that incorporates these two hills. My strategy was not to let these hills get me. This was a good race for me right now, as running such a course pretty much ensures that time doesn't matter and that you concentrate more on place. The temperature was easily in the 80's by the 10:30 starting time and the sun was beating down.
The race starts and immediately goes up Flagpole. As we run up the hill the runners sort themselves and Chuck is a bit ahead with me, Kevin and Bob running kind of together. We looked like we were working as a team but really didn't feel that way. I'm holding my place and saving myself for the first Parachute. Mile 1 marker passes in 5:20, this feels fast like the marker is short. I pass Kevin on the ascent of Parachute and then go head to head with Rimkis on the descent, finally passing him going up a little bump of a hill and accelerating on the following downhill for a small lead. Rimkis hangs on to me for awhile and surges a few times, and I match. This continues until about three miles, and I open up a lead that I hold going up parachute. The descent is almost as hard as the going up, as I'm shuffling my feet in fast motion just to maintain some control. After this its a straightaway out of the woods and towards the finish. I can't see the next runner ahead of me and cruise in to 16th place. 24:19 for the 4 mile course.
I'll take it. Jason Bull, a BMRC runner, finished about 30 seconds ahead of me, depending who is in what shape and what distance we run, we alternate finishing ahead of each other. Chuck finished about 45 seconds ahead of me and Matt, after a fast start, hung on to finish about 5 seconds ahead of Chuck. Rimkis, Kevin, and Jeff finished immediately behind me. So we got 12, 14, 16-19 places. Very solid team effort that got us $100 to split. I was curious to see how I'd do against Kevin, who's been running very well on the track all year, but that kind of training does not lead to logging many miles. So while he's in much better shape than me, I think my training, despite its inconsistencies, is better suited for XC.
Lots of other thoughts like that going around in my mind. I'm in racing mode, and looking at who I can gun for if I get my training more regular. This is good, cheetah is getting hungry. We'll see how it goes. Cross country meets are fun, teams all hanging around in groups; lots of waiting around in a daylong event. I stuck around for awhile and ran home again for a 3 mile cooldown.
Total of 10 miles and a good morning's work.
posted by seebo | 12:38 PM
1 Comments:
Nice work, man. I can't imagine racing up parachute.
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