Hey everyone,
It’s been a while since my last entry and for that I apologize, I’ve just been wicked busy with school and preparing for our last few big meets of the season and on top of all that I’ve finally joined the ranks of the employed.
I guess I’ll start off with the New England Cross Country Championships. You couldn’t get a much better day for racing. I finally got out and to the front of the pack at this meet, third times the charm I guess. I went through the mile with Mike Marsella (RI) and Connor Rog (CT) in the high 4:40‘s. At that point we had gotten some decent separation on the rest of the field. We were all right together at the two mile market and we blasted through that in 9:51. After that things went down hill for me. We hadn’t done much hill work coming into this meet and Connor and Mike flew away from me on the long gradual up hill following the two mile. I managed to hang on to third place with a XC PR of 15:39. I was so proud of the rest of the Maine guys Harlow Ladd 9th, Silas Eastman 10th, Tim Follo 11th, Chase Brown 13th, Dan Curts 19th, Joe Andrews 27th, and the even more impressive fact is that every Maine runner, with the exception of few ran there best time of the season, and many the best time of their life. Congratulations to all you guys!
Now onto the Footlocker Northeast Regional. I got out into the lead pack early and we seemed to be cruising along at a very relaxed pace. I found out why, I went through the mile mark in 5:00, just a couple of seconds back of U.S #1 Edward Cheserk! However, my victory was short lived as he destroyed us on our first big up hill and from there he was gone. I was running in second place when all of a sudden every xc runners worst fear got me. I got something large stuck in my spikes, turned out to be some type of wood. Around the two mile mark a pack of 5 runners caught back up to me and we went through in 10:21. I stuck with them on the back side and finally got my legs back under me after cardiac. We flew through the last mile and I ended up crossing the line in 6th place in amongst a tight pack. Mile splits were approximately 5:00, 5:21, 5:03. This I feel was the best race I have ever run, and I plan to better it at nationals.
My goals for nationals are pretty straight forward and at least I feel very obtainable. I want to be in the top 15 (All-American) and preferably the top 10. I also want to run a PR and be under 15:22 which would be my overall 5k PR.
No quote this time, just a whole lot of love to everyone who has supported me through out my career
