Matt McClintock World Jr XC Blog #5

 

Hi everyone,


    So as we all know I did not keep up with my promise to blog each day of my trip, and for that I apologize, but things got very busy the last days before the race and the last thing I wanted to do was spend time recounting my experiences when I could be out experiencing more.


    The morning of the race went like any other for me.  I woke up early and had 2 pieces of peanut butter toast followed by a short 14 minute shakeout run and 4 strides, followed by stretching.  The men’s junior team loaded up on the bus at around 10:30 this got us to the course at around 10:45.  We started warming up around 11:25 with consisted of a 15 minute warm-up jog and static stretching.  We were moved into the call room at 12:10 upon which we were released into the area behind the starting line to do strides and any other last minute preparation.  We were brought to the line with 1 minute to go and then the gun went off, followed almost immediately by a large number of us, including myself, hitting the muddy ground, as the start line was much too small to house all of the masses of anxious flesh which awaited it.  After climbing back to my feet and regrouping with teammates Andrew Garnder, Malachy Schrobilgen, and Thomas Graham (who had taken quite a pounding in the pile up) we started picking our way back up through the pack and by the time we finished the first loop I had reached up and tapped Darren Fahy on the shoulder to signal our arrival in the top 50.  Feeling good I continued to move up hoping the US Champ Craig Nowak would follow me, which he did expertly.  Over the next 2 laps I slowly climbed my through to the 40’s, 30’s, high 20’s, and with a lap to go I was going strong with 25th with Nowak about 4 spots back.  In the next kilometer I gained ground to a pack of runners up front and made a surge around them, almost instantaneously hearing the Stanford coach telling me top 20 was in the pack directly ahead.  At the top of the final climb up the big uphill I caught runners 19-21 and in the homestretch I kicked down the 20 and 21 of the aforementioned group.  Nowak followed 4 spots behind in 24th and Malachy two spots behind that in 26th.  The three of us were the first 3 finishers not from the continent of Africa.  Darren Fahy rounded out our scorers with his 39th place finish.  The team results placed the USA in 4th also the first non-African country.


    So that was the race, the remainder of the time since my last blog has featured travel home, and a down/recovery week.  Starting Monday I will begin training toward a 5000m at the Mt. Sac Distance Carnival, possibly preluded by a warm-up 1500m and relay leg at the Sea Ray Relays the week prior.  


    Again thanks everyone for reading my blog and for all of the continued support!


Thank you,
Matt McClintock