Shaker XC series (race #2)

 This was the second race in the three race Shaker Village cross country series.  I get a chuckle every time they call it "Adult cross country", it makes me think that it might be rated R or something.

I was feeling sluggish and my ankle was really yelling at me in the morning.  During the warm-up I kept thinking about  my "crankle" (cranky ankle) and how hard I might want to race.  There was no one else out on the course when I did a preview loop.  The course was very well marked.  I was a bit nervous about the footing with all of the leaves down after yesterday's rain and wind. Really there was only about 400 meters of single-track that had truly bad footing and difficulty seeing where you'd step.  I figured that'd be a good place to relax and try to recover during the race.

A very small field lined up for the 2 loop 5k course with the option to bail after one lap if you wanted to.  The first race in the series was a single loop with a short warm-up loop for a total of 1.8 miles.  I was hoping to run the big loop around the same time I did for it during the shorter version of the race.  I was also planning to go out with whoever took it out and then see what I could do for the second loop.  

I ended up alone right from the start and concentrated on keeping from rolling an ankle or something disastrous like that.  Looking at the Strava segment, I ran fairly slow (for me) in the single-track part with times of 2:02 and 2-flat.  I 'd done it in 1:57 at the single loop race and 1:55 in the Spring race (when I was feeling frisky/fit).  I felt pretty strong on the dirt road hill (I'd end up running it faster BOTH times than I did at the single loop race).  That got me through loop one in 10:20.  I listened for them announcing second place but never heard it.  I knew Kara was back there but not sure how far back.  I was happy to see that my 1/2 mile from 1.5 to 2 miles was only 2 seconds slower than lap one.  I upped the effort (although maybe not the actual speed) on the single-track and made up the 2 seconds.  I was wheezing a bit and ran as hard as I could on the final hills.  That got me home in 20:36, so my second lap was 10:16.  I was very happy with that.  All things considered this was a good hard run and the bonus was that I picked up a win.  I'll take it!