Winter Series #1 - Mystery Through History

Another year, another Winter Series. TL;DR – 8 races, points based on finish, high quality courses, cheap entry fee, and a lot of fun!

The mystery through history is kind of the odd ball race in the series. Most of them are 5Ks, but that’s not the case with this one. In fact, the distance changes year to year (anywhere from 3 to 5 miles)! Fortunately, this year I was paying attention before the race and heard the director state the distance. Well, sort of. I knew it was 4 point something…

In addition to the distance, the course was described. From the grunts and groans that filled the air, I realized that the hills would be a challenge. However, being from Front Royal, I thought maybe this was just the flat landers and treadmillers talking.

NOPE! Have you ever heard your grandfather talking about how he used to walk up hill, both ways, to and from school, in a foot of snow, barefoot? Welp, I found the hill he was talking about.

The first mile went well. I started out slower than usual (a new thing for me), and was hoping to build up the pace. I had the lead pack in sight on long straights and knew I was around the top 10. “Good,” I thought. I can settle in, work the hills, and then crush the finish.

NOPE AGAIN!

Alright… it’s been a while since I did a hill workout. Hell, I took a long time off from running in general since the Richmond Marathon. And the “workouts” I did were not intense at all. But these hills were tough. They weren’t huge. They weren’t long. But they were constantly rolling. I’d recover on a downhill and then my heart rate would spike again going up the next knoll. All I could do was focus on the 3 people ahead of me, and hope to stay with them.

Fortunately, one of those three was Brenda – a staple to the SVR running events. I passed her early on and then she reciprocated the favor around mile 2. I hate being passed, so I needed to stay close.

Climbing back into the woods before the finish, I felt refreshed and ready to rock. But so did Brenda. I followed in her shadow as we reeled in the other two guys ahead of us. She then slowly pulled away with every stride, but with less than .75 of a mile to go, I knew I had the guts to pass the other two.

(Heading towards the finish. Photo by Karsten Brown)

The woods section is enjoyable, but deceivingly long. Fortunately, I remembered my trail shoes as the trail is chunky rock. I blew by the two guys (whom I later found out went out EXTREMELY fast and gassed out) and focused on my finish. Though Brenda was now out of the picture, I opened up my stride on the straight, downhill finish. As I crossed the finish line and looked at the time, I wasn’t impressed; but I was still happy. 

4.1 miles, 27:24 elapsed, 6:34 pace, 8^th overall, 1^st for my age group 20-29.

44 and Counting!

Yesterday was the first day of R-MA’s Cross Country Season. Since I teach at the middle school, I had to hurry to make it to practice on time due to scheduling conflicts. As I crested the hill to go towards our meeting point, I saw a wave of students in athletics. A cacophony of noise went out upon my approach, “Coach Ilnicki!” “Ill-a-becky” and “COOOAAACH!” were among the battle cries.

Overwhelmed, I shuffled my way through the barrage of high-fives, fist bumps, and the occasional “bro hug.”

The 2014 R-MA XC Team (source: http://www.rma.edu/Varsity-cross-country)

WOW! Is this some kind of joke? Why are there so many? Scanning the crowd, I estimated around 35 students. Whoa, what? We usually have a team of around 15-20 (actual roster number is 44 – this does not include the middle school runners)!

Not anticipating this huge of a turn out, or the range of abilities, I was briefly knocked off my game. I gathered myself, found a high spot to stand on and asked for their attention. After a brief bit of introductions and taking attendance (I only knew roughly half of the runners), it was time to get down to business.

Baptism by fire would be the best way to describe the day. 3.1 miles of a grueling course out in the sun with its rays pelting your skin until it was soaked with sweat. To much of my surprise, a good chunk were able to finish the course with no shortcuts or stopping early (roughly 60%). Now, I’m not saying it was fast, they were told to go easy, but heck – being able to run/walk a 5K without a prior practice had me intrigued.

Now comes the challenging part. I believe in a “no-cut” policy. If you are signing up to run and stick with it, you got my vote. If it’s not your cup of tea, I understand if you quit. No hard feelings as running is not for everyone. But the hard part now is separating the casual/social runners from the elite.

I hate labeling students for a fear of self-fulfilling prophecy. Sometimes if a coach says a runner should be in a slower group, negative thoughts enter the brain, and now that runner doesn’t think they can be fast enough. I also believe just the opposite can be true. If a runner is deemed not fast enough at the beginning of the year, they might bust their tail in order to prove to themselves that coach was wrong.

So, what’s this coach going to do? I’m not entirely sure. This first week is going to be a time to feel out where everyone is at. From there, I might make 3 distinct (with times/effort) groups: Club Group (there for socialization, fitness goals, losing weight, but are non-competitive), Intermediate Group (middle of the pack runners who have the potential to prove themselves and step up to a higher level of competition) and Varsity Group (the runners who are there to win and have produced fast enough times to be considered the top runners).

This model will be fluid, giving the runners a chance to switch groups when they improve in performance. This will also allow me to tailor to their needs at practice, i.e. a 30:00+ runner should not be doing the same thing as a sub 19:00.

As a brief aside, I plan on chronicling both my XC team and my person marathon training for the next few months. Let me know what you think, and by all means feel free to give suggestions!