This has been a key race on my mind all year. Two years actually I last ran the Club XC Championships in 2015. I got 8th for my age group there and about 25th overall for age grading so a pretty solid result, but also felt I could do more. In the meantime 2016 was kind of down up down, with blood sugar issues setting me back for the first 5 months or so, and the shoulder injury and surgery knocking me out for the last 5 months, including last year's Club XC in Florida. That said, those couple months in the summer went pretty well.
This year everything has fallen into place and been running well, despite being two years older. Went into the championships excited but feeling a little intimidated by the field--these are the most competitive races of the year. The A Goal was top 5 in age group, top 10 age grade. That would a great way to close out this decade. A+ were top 3s in those categories.
Race day was simply awful. 30 degrees with a 15 mph wind out of the West. That's perfect for cross country where you want to face some adversity and hope that it bothers your competitors even more.
We'd start and finish each of the three laps with a hefty headwind, and finish with a 600 m long uphill. Race went close to according to plan but it wasn't easy going. I stayed in 5th in my age group (but not knowing it for sure because they throw us all in there and all you can see is the color coded back bibs of those in sight), from about 2K on. I almost caught one guy at 7K but he managed to keep a small gap over the last lap and I had no kick left.
End result 36:29 for 5th in my age group and overall 4th age grade (all masters age groups combined) at 89 percent. So an A and half a plus. I missed top 3 by 13 seconds in age group and just 3 seconds in age grading. Close but not quite enough.
Now some down time and easy running to wrap up the year, before winding it up over the winter and spring. And moving into a new age group.
