Whitewater Invite

First meet of the season on September 14th- Saturday 2013 at Whitewater, Warhawk invite.  Excited to race my first 8k of the season since last year.  Our main competition was our WIAC rival Whitewater, we know what we were capable of doing, basically going out in packs.  The gun went off & the 2013 XC season begins.  I felt good in the first mile, a little quick, but stayed in control, the two mile, stayed relaxed, same with the third, stayed with my team mate Drake for most of the race, once we got to the woods I was feeling but all of a sudden the gravel hill got to me, we had to run through that son of a gun twice, the 4 mile was a little slow, but once we got through 2nd gravel hill, was able to establish & going after it all the way to finish.  When I finished my race, saw the time was 28:44, 11th for the team, I was very happy, an improved time from last year by 3 or 4 minutes, definitely taking the iron for the last 9 months has helped me tremendously.  I was a spot short of possibly racing Griak, but heard was the alternate, so pretty happy with that. We won the Warhawk invite, like the 5th or 6th year in a row or something. Overall the team ran really well, I was pleased.  Our 1-7 ran a decent first race of the season, still some work to improve, but we know what we needed to work on, so basically having a good week of practice & possibly getting ready for Griak in a few weeks, while others getting ready for the Beloit-Old English invite this Saturday.  

PigeonLake/XC 2013

Last week we were up North near Drummond, basically Pigeon Lake.  We did a lot of fun activities such as the canoe relays, guess your time, & ultimate frisbee.  We all had a great team bonding during the nights of bonfire.  It was a great week, got to hang with the freshmen along with my bros, the freshmen were pretty cool.  Had some pranks off & on during the week, which always happens when we were up their.  The runs were great as well, to me that's my favorite part of Pigeon Lake is running with the crew, we all had fun & work together.  We set goals as well, we have high expectations this season, this year our goal is to get back to Nationals and place well.  I'm really gonna miss Pigeon Lake soo much, it was one of the best times I have had in my five years being up there, this definitely tops it.  After the good week of practice, I was ready for the Alumni meet, basically my preparation worked very well, basically being smart on workouts & easy days, along with eating proper nutrition.  Then Saturday came- race day, we had our gathering for Alumni, basically top 20 for veterans while the last 4 reserved for freshmen/sophomores,  my goal was to break 24:00 & get top 15 for team.  Went out alright in the first mile was at 5:48 first mile, then as the race went on I heard at the three mile 17:52, then thought to myself, alright have a chance to break 24:00.  During the race I was basically in good enough position to make the team, got after the last hill & sprinted when going down the hill.  Once the results came up, it was either 14th or 15th overall for team placing, my time was 24:03, I was very happy with the result.  Now it's my 3rd & final year of XC season, I have high expectations for myself this season,  we as a team do too, I'm really looking forward to this season. First meet is a week from today at UW-Whitewater, back to the good old 8k races.