Wayland XC festival

 I entered the Wayland XC festival race on Wednesday, before the rates went up and of course on Thursday my hamstring was killing me.  I tried to take it easy and upped the icing and added in some heat as well. I did some nice gentle running on Saturday which definitely helped.  I was nervous on Sunday morning as some of the supporting ligaments (groin/hip) were not happy.

At 530am I headed out for an easy 3 mile run to loosen up a bit and keep my normal rhythms with the race not until nearly noon.  I got to the race with a little over an hour to spare and met up with teammate Todd Callaghan (who was the last to sign up when I put the call out for a 5th man, thanks Todd!).  I caught the end of the kids' race (they were flying) and then headed out for a bit of a preview of the course.  I'd run it last year, so I knew what I was in for, but it is always a good idea to check it out in the event of last-minute changes or any poorly marked sections.  The course was well marked, and I enjoyed listening to the Battle Road group chatting as they caught and passed me.

After my warm-up I quickly changed into race gear and decided to go with the Saucony carbon fiber spikes.  I'd only worn them twice before (Wayland last year and USATF NE XC last year).  They are super light, and you can really feel the turf under your feet.  Of course, that also means I'd be paying a big price after as this is way too much for my arthritic ankle.  I put in another easy mile just to make sure there were no issues with the shoes.

A smallish crowd of about 100 lined up for a spirited rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner and then we were off.  My goal was to focus on GLRRs John Barbour who really buried me at the 8k last week, but we were somewhat close at Carlise back in September.  I've been running about a minute slower than last year at the 5k XC races, so I figured if all went well, I'd be around 20:45.  John had lined up next to me and we headed up the first hill together.  He moved ahead as we rolled down the hill and hit the bottleneck at 1/3 of a mile into the race.  It wasn't terrible and I passed John on this part.  Some of the Austin Prep kids must have gone out too hard and they really slowed down after about 1/2 mile, I nearly took a spill as a couple of guys drastically slowed.  As I went around them, I saw Brad Klinedinst only a couple of places ahead.  Brad and I had some good battles last year, but last week he'd beaten me by nearly 2 minutes.  I was fired up with the carrot in front of me.  

I slowly reeled Brad in and caught him at 1.5 miles right at the top of the course as we got onto the aqueduct.  On the downhill I could see teammate Warren Angel up ahead.  I focused on closing the gap, he was 20+ seconds up on me at 2 miles.  I locked in with a New England Elit kid and we pushed each other (he pulled away on the final uphill and I couldn't go).  I never caught Warren but gave it a good push right to the finish.

I ended up running a bit faster than I thought I would with a 20:29, my best XC 5k so far this fall.  Our team had a fine day with Warren winning the 60+ age group, Todd taking the 50+ age group and our team taking 2nd in the 40+ team category and getting a perfect score in the 50+.

We have another month until the final race in the XC series which is the USATF NE championships at Franklin Park.  I'm looking forward to the break to get in some healing.