USA Club Cross Championships!

29:38-1st place overall! (Michael Scott Photo)

After a tough week of training, the race turned out far better than I could have planned. At USA Club XC Championships, I ran 29:38 for a 10 second victory and my first National Title!  Truthfully, this week was not going very well, especially coming of the USATF annual meeting in St. Louis that I attended. All week I felt a little beat up from the travel so I cut my mileage back to only doing single runs in the hope that I would have a fighting chance to make the team to Scotland....

Despite my nerves, once the gun went off, it was all business. I got off the line extremely well, and was never more than a few steps out of the lead from the gun. Around 5k I slid into the lead and went roughly 14:56/14:44 for my splits. Once I actually started to pull away, I kept waiting to get caught, but I only increased my lead with each lap. With 1k to go, I was able to just focus on making one muddy turn then breaking the tape! It was great to earn my first national championship over a very good field, and a lot of runners that I look up to. Here is a link to the race and also my  post race interview! (both thanks to runnerspace.com!)

Of course with the win, I am now headed to Scotland as part of the US National Team. It is a great honor to be able to earn that singlet, and the outpouring of support from my family, friends, and teammates has been an extraordinary and irreplaceable part of my career so far! My coach at Team USA Minnesota, Dennis Barker, has really been an incredible catalyst since I moved here in September to make this possible.

Now my next race is in Scotland on January 7th!