Club XC

Club Cross Country Nationals went well individually and as a team.  The women won the team, and I placed seventh overall.  I qualified for the United States team going to the Edinburgh, Scotland for the Bupa International Cross Country Challenge on January 5^th.  My teammates Meghan Peyton, Ladia Albertson-Junkas, and McKenzie Melander also qualified for the women’s team, and John Peterson qualified for the men’s team.  Dennis Barker, my coach is going as the junior men’s coach.  Also Stephanie Price, my former University of Minnesota teammate, qualified for the women’s race.  Amazing! Five of the nine spots on the women’s side were given to women who train in Minnesota.  I am so excited to travel internationally with some of my favorite running partners.  I am also excited to meet some new runners.  Last year was so much fun in Edinburgh because we had such a great group of women.

One of our board members, Lance Elliott came along with our team, and ran in the men’s masters race.  He warned us before our race started that the course was difficult and muddy, always going uphill or downhill, it was hard to gain ground on runners once you let them go.  I went out hard with the leaders in the first section of the race, and we passed through the first mile in 5:10.  The top three women started to pull away, and I was feeling strong, so I went with them.  I continued to feel great through the second mile, but started to fall off the leaders during the third mile.  In the last 1200m of the race, I was struggling, and three women passed me.  Thankfully, two of them were my teammates.  I’ve been training with Meghan for the past two years, and when she ran past me, she yelled at me to keep it going.  I truly didn’t have another gear to shift into, but her words helped to motivate me to stay strong to the finish.  As a team we had 4 people in the top 11, which was awesome.

Also, I had such a great time spending time with my teammates and all the other runners from Minnesota.  Elizabeth Yetzer, my roommate, came with the Run n Fun team, as well as many of my other good friends. 

Individual Results: http://usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2012/USATF-National-Club-Cross-Country-Championships/Results/Women-s-Open.aspx

And Team Scores: http://usatf.org/Events---Calendar/2012/USATF-National-Club-Cross-Country-Championships/Results/Women-s-Open/Team.aspx

Post Race

 

And Post Awards