Clarkson XC does Nationals

What a crazy weekend. Two weeks ago, we had no idea that we would be spending the last weekend before Thanksgiving somewhere other than Clarkson, let alone spending it in Wisconsin at the NCAA DIII National XC Championships. Coming off a career and program best placing at Regionals, Abbie Sullivan qualified for the big show as the top-ranked individual in the Atlantic region, and the top runner from the Liberty League Conference. It was a wild ride there in many ways, with three NCAA Champs rookies making the trip.
Marc Messer photo

After a warm-hearted and chilly-weathered send-off from the team, we faced logistical setback after setback en-route to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Our airport was about to get hit with a 10” snowstorm as we were supposed to depart, and our first flight was delayed to the point of us being automatically rebooked from our connection to a new flight Friday morning. We scrambled as soon as we could make contact to try and move rental cars around, preparing to make the 2.5-hour drive from Chicago to Oshkosh. As luck would have it, our connection was also delayed just enough for us to sprint through O'Hare terminal 3 and join the boarding line. Except we had already been rebooked. The standby passengers that got bumped from the flight were less than pleased, but hey, we made it. Then that flight spent 45 minutes on the deicing pad, pushing our arrival time back from 10pm to almost midnight. Oh yeah, and we were in a new time zone, so really it was more like 1am. We finally rolled into our hotel at around 12:30, 11 hours after we left Clarkson, and only 4 hours earlier than if we had just driven. *shrug*


We took the next morning to sleep off our travel hangover, rolling down to our hotel breakfast at around 930. From there we planned how are we going to kill the hours before we would be able to officially check in and run the course.

If you’ve ever been to Oshkosh (and you're not from WI), it was probably either for D3XC nationals or the Oshkosh Air Festival. Other than that, there's not a whole lot going on. So we moseyed on over to the EAA museum for a few hours, checking out planes and stuff before the coaches meeting.



Abbie went solo to the course after dropping me and Allott off downtown, and we quickly found our North Country neighbors SLU at the meeting. At least we could follow someone who’d been here before.

Later that night was the NCAA Awards banquet, where we managed to snag a table with other individual runners: one from our hotel (via UC Santa Cruz), and another we found out was sharing a start box with Abbie (via Suffolk). The dinner was good, there were awards, speeches, and lots of denim.


The next morning was a little different race morning than we were all used to. No team, no bus, no team tent, no parents. Just our small travel party, a rental car, our bags, and the short drive to the golf course. And boy was there a crowd for this one.



 I sometimes forget that XC fans are the most physically active fans in any sport.

Marc Messer photo

When the women started, we had no idea what to expect. Abbie had done well at regionals, mixing it up with a top-ranked team. We forgot that now there were 31 other teams that were all similar, plus another 50+ individuals. But it didn't matter, Clarkson was represented at nationals, and it was a great way to cap off the season.
Marc Messer photo

Abbie finished 121/279, ten seconds out of the top-100, twenty from top-75.

Our trip wound down with some nice meals around Oshkosh, and the flights back weren't nearly as eventful as the ones out. At least for us. I hope the Oberlin Women's team made their flights out of O'Hare.

There's so much more about this event that can't feasibly be written down, more than just a "You had to be there" type of story. The people we met, the things we saw, stuff that just can't be given justice written down.

You had to be there, and hopefully next year, I can tell you that again.

3 Races to cover!

Alright, so it was midterm-season here at St. Mikes, so the time to blog has been limited. I'll just cut to the chase here and give out the race reports, with just a little bit of stuffing.


First up was the Vermont Collegiate State Championships at Vermont Technical College in Randolph, VT. This was the same course that we ran the Vermont Tech Invite on last year, so we had a bit of an advantage on already knowing that it was a very dirty course. 
It was a good race, nice having Middlebury there to chase down, I ran what at the time was my best race all season, coming in 13th (SMC Harrier#2) in a SB time of 29:33. As a comparison, I came in 13th at the Invitational last season in 32:21. That is 33 seconds per mile faster. What.


That week, coach told me not to run much, and to do more cross-training. So, I went for a bike ride.


Next came the NE-10 Preview Meet/Gates Farm Invitational at Franklin Pierce College. This course was, um, challenging. Going in, someone gave us the idea that it would be a flat and fast course. It was flat like the Rockies are short. The defining feature of the 2k loop is a section affectionately known as "Executioner Hill," a 150m long grade with 35m of vertical (500ft long, 115ft up), in some places pushing grades of 35%. The first mile mark was at the top. And we ran up it three times (1k out and back + 3x2km loops). It was a tough race, but still fun. I ended up placing 22nd overall, in 32:35, third for the team.


Lastly, this past weekend was the 24th Mayors Cup in Boston, MA. This race brings in elite runners from all over the world for 25-30 minutes of racing in historic Franklin Park. I ran what is definitely my best race so far, running my second fastest 5k while running a PR of 28:10 in the 8k. Franklin Park is actually a flat and fast course,and having the elite field there really helped. I was 125th overall, and the third St.Mikes runner, but this race was really a breakout performance for me.

Getting over Legs

Last week was an interesting one for me. 

On Tuesday after doing  hill repeats on Leclair Street in Winooski, I noticed a little pain in my left shin.

That continued to Thursday, where I couldn't complete the team Tempo set on North Campus. I met with the trainers, and they said I may be coming down with a stress fracture.

So I did the most logical thing. 

I raced.


RACE REPORT: MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE ALDRICH INVITATIONAL - 9/20/2014

So last race I said that I was gonna try a different strategy, and this week we did just that. The above pack (Tyler, the Cody's, and myself) as well as Aaron and Mike stayed fairly close for the majority of the race. We went out at what I thought was a fairly conservative pace, 5:47 first mile. As the race wore on, the pack broke apart, but we mostly finished close to each other. I was 52nd overall, 30:33. My leg surprisingly didn't hurt during the race, or afterwards. 




The next day, just to keep the pressure off the leg, I went roller skiing with the Women's team in Huntington. A nice 1:15 ski at an easy effort, and I got to know some of the new skiers!



Tuesday, I had the thrill of running a hill workout by myself. Not fun. But, again, my leg didn't hurt! The pictures are obviously not the hill, but the hill is not something I would want to look at. 

Toss in a few days of biking and roller skiing, that pretty much sums up my week. Last night the team travelled to the UVM track for the GMAA Mini Meet #3, the last one of the season. Everyone (well, most everyone) competed in all three events, the 3000m, the 800m, and the 400m. And I did not come in last in any of them! I ran my PR 400 (after running the 3k in 9:59.6 and the 800 in 2:22) in 59.67. And now my leg hurts. It started hurting during the warmup, and continued through the workout.