USA Club XC
Life's been getting a little busier now that Christmas is coming and I have a new chapter in life that I'm about to start.
About a month ago I made the decision to move to Charlottesville, VA.
I will be moving shortly after christmas and joining my friend Dawn
Cromer (another steepler)! I will still be competing for the Invaders
through the 2008 Olympic Trials.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to compete at US Club Champs in
Ohio. I had a mini taper that included no lifting, less miles, shorter
workouts and a day off for the week of the race - i was ready to fly!
The previous week I was still hammering away workouts and had 75 miles
in (about the average this season). But since I've been doing a good
job with recovering these last few months it had made the world of
difference and as far as I knew it felt like i was resting for weeks.
I had heard earlier in the week that Ohio was expecting some rain and
snow. I was extremely excited. With bad conditions it gives me that
much more confidence - especially for cross country where all that
matters is who comes across the line first! For some reason I do really
well in crappy mud. With my stride and my ability to steeple; I can
usually beat out the fast "pretty" runners (well have a better shot).
On Friday evening, we ran the course for our premeet and it was covered
in snow. I could see other people's faces trying to run and already
knew many people were already making excuses. Getting back to the
hotel, I did my drills and strides in the parking lot. My body had
never felt better before an important race :) For din I went with the
guys to Ruby Tuesdays; I had a huge hamburger (with a ton of ketchup-
my favorite on just about everything- today i had it with
breakfast, lunch and dinner).
Race day - The snow melted on most of the course, except for the
outsides - which was where i ran almost every step of the race. I made
the decision to stay wide and take my chances on lumpy ground covered
in snow instead of the mud slopped middle where everyone's tracks made
it super slow. I couldn't completely avoid it with the turns and with
going around the competition, but it made a huge difference to swing
wide.
My quads were a little sore from the premeet run on the snow the night before, but other than that - good to go.
My plan was to get out hard .. and then fight. My ultimate goal was a
top 10 finish, but i knew that this year there were dozens of girls who
i'd competed against in track and some had PR's almost minute faster in
the 5k. I knew that if i didn't get out, it was going to be much harder
to fight through the crowd.
When the gun went off I sprinted off to the front, but then kinda got
this feeling that i might be in the lead and sort of eased back for a
stride or two.. not the best move, and i'll learn from this and not be
afraid in the future.. At about 300m the course narrowed and I was in a
decent position in the 20's, but not quite up where I could avoid some
of the traffic. The first 1/2 mile was the sloppiest for me, because
there was no way else to go with some many bodies..
I was weaving in and out trying to catch my teammate Erin who was about 5 secs ahead of me at the mile..
My feet were completely frozen from the time the snow soaked them in
the warm up.. I felt a shock go through my body near the mile when I
couldn't avoid 3 icy puddles. Besides that, nothing was going to stop
me. About midrace I was near the 20th position and after 2 miles I
caught Erin. We ran together until the finish.
I got really excited despite the fatigue around the 4K mark; Just
realizing that I had less than 10 minutes time, and here I was in the
middle of a great race.. of course about a K later I was in horrible
pain, but at that point i asked God for strength and flashed back to my
workouts with the girls in Military park.. and all I had was about 3
minutes left of life until I cross the line..
The last straight had a slight uphill (not the best for me to be
passing people) and one girl went flying by as Erin was only a few
strides ahead.. I kicked hard and held off a pack behind me and
finished knowing i had done all i could to run my best.
I didn't hear any splits and didn't care on this course, but i was
surprised as my time of 21:19 (16th place) was only 15 secs off my PR
on the flattest course in perfect weather. The winner was Delilah
DiCrescenzo in 20:30- another steepler and only a few places ahead was
Amanda Lorenzen, another d3 steepler.
As I suspected I looked behind to see girls come through the shoot who in previous races I didn't have a chance to beat.
I ran my cooldown with Shauneen Garrahan (raced well considering that
she fell at about 200m!).. we cheered the guys on as I literally felt
like i had frozen iceblocks for feet. I had no feeling in them until i
got back to the hotel about 2.5 hours after they had froze.. I stayed
in the pool room to get warm and do some yoga. The funniest thing was
that I still had my uniform on and i only had 1 speck of mud on the
front of my jersey and a few dots on the back. Most of the people
looked like they went through a war and mud fight.
Here are some links to pictures of the race so you can get a better idea of the conditions -
http://www.columbusrunning.com/usatfxcpicsc.htm
http://www.sportzbizz.com/2007USATFClubs/openwomenweb/index.htm *these have some of the funniest race pics of me I've EVER seen.
RESULTS (25 of 234 finishers)
1 Delilah DiCrescenzo, 24, Conshohocken, PA 20:30.7
2 1 Julie Culley, 26, Baltimore, MD 20:32.7 Pacers Brooks A
3 Serena Ramsey, 25, Columbia, MO 20:40.9
4 Kathleen Trotter, 22, Palo Alto, CA 20:48.2 Peninsula D C- Brooks
5 2 Erin Dromgoole, 28, Brighton, MA 20:48.5 New Balance Boston
6 Allison Grace, 25, Blowing Rock, NC 20:51.8 Zap Fitness
7 3 Jessica Minty, 23, Boston, MA 20:57.5 New Balance Boston
8 4 Leigh Daniel, 29, Ashland, OH 20:58.4 Run Ohio Racing Team
9 Mary Duerbeck, 29, Henderson, NV 21:07.1
10 5 Tera Moody, 26, Boulder, CO 21:07.9 Boulder Run Co/adidas
11 Monica Joyce, 49, Ann Arbor, MI 21:10.1 Tortoise & Hare R C
12 6 Kristina Roth, 24, Raleigh, NC 21:13.7 Adidas Raleigh T C
13 7 Amanda Lorenzen, 24, Bloomington, IN 21:15.9 Team Indiana Elite
14 8 Carre Joyce, 26, Salt Lake City, UT 21:17.5 Wasatch Athletics
15 9 Erin Nehus, 26, Gallipolis, OH 21:19.1 Indiana Invaders
16 10 Julia Rudd, 24, Indianapolis, IN 21:19.4 Indiana Invaders
17 11 Jemissa Hess, 23, Raleigh, NC 21:21.2 Adidas Raleigh T C
18 12 Kasie Enman, 28, Huntington, VT 21:21.7 Boston Athletic Assn
19 13 Kara June, 25, San Luis Obispo, CA 21:25.2 Asics Aggie R C
20 14 Jennifer Donovan, 25, Brighton, MA 21:26.4 Boston Athletic Assn
21 15 Erin Moeller, 30, Cedar Rapids, IA 21:29.8 RunAblaze
22 16 Mariko Holbrook, 26, Medford, MA 21:32.3 Boston Athletic Assn
23 17 Alicia Valtin, 23, Lillington, NC 21:33.3 Adidas Raleigh T C
24 18 Alisha Williams, 25, Colorado Springs, CO 21:34.2 Boulder Run Co/adidas
25 Bethany Brewster, 27, Madison, WI 21:34.8 Wisconsin Runner R T
Our team would have had a good shot of getting in the top 5 until we
lost 2 of our top runners. :( Stephanie Dueringer had surgery
less than a week ago to get what they thought was a cyst in her knee
removed.. and Robyn Burns was in great shape until she got bronchitis
and walking phemonia early in the week. Alana and Shannon did a nice
job stepping up to compete and it was great to have a full team. I had
a blast and I'm going to meet with coach to make some plans to see if I
will run at US Cross in February.
The plan is to test my fitness on the indoor track; if i can run 9:25
in the 3K then its worth me taking a trip to California with my
teammate Erin. I'm going to need some extra speed because most likely
the weather will be nice and the course is similiar to a track .. it is
my goal someday to make a US Cross team.. but I want to run the race
only if i'm ready to really go after it, not just run to run it.
My first indoor track workout is tomorrow :) Today I had a nice 10 mile
run through the hobo trails and ended at the indoor track to do some
drills and strides and ab/back/arm strength exercises. Besides my usual
dull achy right hamstring, I was not sore after the race. I took good
care of myself by getting good rest and only had a mild celebration
Saturday night with a few drinks back in Indianapolis to say goodbye to
my coworker Thomas Fraser as he goes back to Ireland for Christmas.
Its back to the hard training, hard lifting and grinding the miles out.
This means I'll get to eat that much more and sleep that much better !
:)
post comment
Reminder
11:53 PM, December 11, 2007
.. Posted by UnrTrack
hahaha... ok so those pictures reminded me why I'm so glad I don't have xc anymore. jk... good luck with gettin some training indoors and with your upcoming move!
fast times
2:17 PM, December 13, 2007
.. Posted by Anonymous
Hey Julia,
Not to burst your bubble, but the course was measured a little over 200m short. If you do not believe this- ask the CRC guys that ran the meet. They measured it the day before and it was not a true 6k. That would explain the fast times, despite the conditions. The guy's race was a little short also, maybe 50m. I saw my time and got excited, then I asked about it... sorry! I always think it's better to know these things :)
xc times
10:11 AM, December 14, 2007
.. Posted by Julia
i'm not surprised that the course was short.. i'm not too concerned about it . that seems about right because there was no way i felt like i was running anything close to a PR. And even if i did, its not like xc pr's mean much anyways.
just curious - have all races in the past been 200 off? (ie: last year NCAAs)
Leaving the Invaders
1:11 PM, December 19, 2007
.. Posted by Anonymous
So, I here you are leaving the Invaders to move to D.C. to be with Webb. Any truth in this?
<br>
<br>The best move would be to leave and find a better coach.
<br>
<br>Peace
Happy New Year!
3:02 AM, January 1, 2008
.. Posted by Paul Coleman
Your Mother just gave me an intro to your life on the web and congrats. I hope you have a great new year and good luck on all your runs.
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