Crossed up

12:00 PM - 10 miles - Franklin Park.
16 minutes up, Mayor's Cup 8K (57th - 26:02), 21 minutes down. Out in 4:52 and it was a steady decline from there.

5:45 PM - 5 miles, 38:10 - Carrara's Trails.
Easy shakeout from la casa de Carrara with Sean during halftime of the Pats game. Took advantage of the trails with what daylight we had left, then finished up on the roads.

Let's put it this way. Two weeks ago I raced 13.1 miles at an average pace of 5:19 per mile. This afternoon, I raced - and I use that term loosely - 8 kilometers, or just under 5 miles, at a not-so-blistering clip of 5:16 per mile. I'm not making any excuses, but deep down I know that today's finishing time isn't anywhere reflective of my current fitness level. To be honest, I'm not sure what it's reflective of, but I do know that I never felt good today - not even for a second. I couldn't make a move, or even respond to one, to save my life. Outside of my 26:11 debut on this course as a freshman in college, this was my slowest Franklin Park finish ever. Bottom line, I had a shitty race. It happens. I'm over it.

Luckily, I had a few teammates who had some pretty good races, so a quick congratulations to Jeff and Justin on their new PRs and Coogs, Brad, Ryan and Fabian on their own solid performances. The women tore it up as well, with Kristen and Erin cracking the top-15 in a stacked field. On the whole, NB Boston was well represented at Franklin Park this afternoon.

So, that's it. The first cross country race of the season is in the books and the fact of the matter is I'm our 7th man, not even taking into account the three studs who sat out for us today.

So what will I do now? I'll lace my shoes back up tomorrow morning, pack away a few more weeks of solid training and have a better race at New England's in three weeks. That's what I'll do.

Quote of the Day

"Aw, it's the same damn hill."
- Chris Voce cementing our decision to avoid Bear Cage Hill on the warmup this afternoon.