End of Season, Busy Week, and XC!

The last race of my summer season was last week at the CVS Downtown 5k in Providence, RI. The race also happened to be the US Championship for 5k. I came in 16^th overall, was the 11^th American and ran 14:14. I was hoping to run a few clicks faster, but was not entirely disappointed with it. The race went out hard, then I lost contact with the lead pack around 1.5-2 miles as Ben pushed the pace up front. With about 800 to go I got caught by another small group and was able to put in a surge of my own with 600 to go, just before the final hill. One American beat me to the line in the final 150 meters, but I was also able to distance myself from the small pack that caught me just a half mile before. That was really the first time I felt like I had the ability to put in a move of my own this season, and even though it was not up in the lead pack, I feel like I’m ending my year on a positive. I’ve already taken a few days off, get a bit of an easy week here, and am hopping right into my fall training block after that. I am really looking forward to putting in the work and having a healthy year of training behind me going into 2012.

ITA looking good for the Broe Wedding.

Aside from the excitement of ending one year and beginning another, this past week was full of events. We took a team trip to Fenway Park last Wednesday. I’ve run by the park before, but that was my first time watching a game. It reminded me a lot of the old Tiger’s Stadium in Detroit. You can feel the tradition in old ballparks like that and it was a cool thing to be able to do as a group. The other big event of the week was Broe’s Wedding! Tim and Bekah got married yesterday and the wedding was a ton of fun. We had a couple friends stay at our house and my coach from Michigan, Ron Warhurst and family, were here for the ceremony. My parents also came in this weekend to visit and attend the wedding. My parents and I hiked up to an old fire tower in Norwich, VT with incredible 360 degree views, and today went to Burligton, VT for a tour of the Ben & Jerry’s factory and dinner with a view of the sunset over Lake Champlain.  It’s been great seeing all of these people from Michigan out here in New Hampshire!

Fenway under the lights.

Sunset in Burlington... Not Bad

Finally, Coaching Indian River School XC is getting more and more fun every week. We’ve been working the kids hard and they are improving in every race they run.  It is also exciting for me to share my passion with kids that are new to running and see them not only be successful and meet their goals, but also enjoy what they are doing every day. We’ve got a big race in Thetford next Saturday on a course that we’ve already run once this season. It will be interesting to see how much better all of the kids run the second time around on the Thetford course after having 3-4 races under their belts.

Until Next Time,

-Lex