Brown Bear Invitational XC

 I felt I had a good week leading up to the Brown Bear Invitational.  A good workout on Tuesday and some easy miles after that had me thinking I'd arrive feeling good. I do admit I was a bit nervous about the 8km distance as I rarely run further than 6 miles at a time and have only raced over 4 miles twice this year.  My goal (based on others running on the same course last year) was 32:30 and my hope was to keep Verrington close for as long as possible.

With the race not starting until 1 pm, I had time to kill.  I did an easy 3 mile run at 5 am then a bunch of stuff around the house to keep busy.  I picked up Verrington and then met up with Jim Pawlicki for a fun carpool to the race.  It was raining most of the way but not the torrential downpours that had been predicted.

Dan and I headed out on the course as the women's race was wrapping up and got in 3 miles that included parts of each of the four loops we'd be running over this interesting course.  Highland park was a golf course that went bankrupt in 2018.  Attleboro wisely decided to buy up the former 93-acre Highland Country Club property for a little over 3 million dollars.  The course featured multiple loops with a lot of repetition making it a great spectator friendly course.  There were no big hills but plenty of little rollers that added up.  The footing was decent, not golf course groomed but also not muddy or ripped up.

I quickly switched to my Inov-8 trail shoes as Dan got on his spikes and we headed back out for a few strides before the start.  About 200 runners lined up (about 1/2 were USATF) and oddly no one seemed to want to be on the end of the line where we lined up, and that turned out to be the shortest route as we headed out.  Dan went by me about 200 meters in and I focused on him and could see Brad Klinedinst a little up ahead.  I didn't recognize anyone else but it felt like I was where I should be.  I lost a few steps on Dan after the mile and would watch him slowly disappear from view.  Brad came back and I got by him and never saw him again.  Some of the younger guys must have gone out too fast as I was passing people for the entire race.  Funny, not many were doing a good job of cutting tangents (maybe they weren't taught?).  I checked my watch at 3 miles and realized that at 19:00 I had a good shot a breaking 32 minutes.  I kept the effort but just couldn't quite get rolling.  Maybe I'm just not fully back from the injury?  The only 2 people to pass me during the race did so in the last 1/4 mile and I could not react.  I crossed the line in 32:11. So, I sort of met my goal but Dan crushed me running a fine 3125, winning the 60+ age group.  Brad rolled in 6 seconds after me and we exchanged pleasantries in the chute.  He will be gunning for me next week!  Our team had a fine day, taking top honors in the 50+.

Verringtion, Dunham, Dunlop, Besse, Pawlicki, Ashmore