Hay! NXN Midwest Regional

I left my house at 6:50 Sunday morning with my day and Coach Traughber for the last race of my high school career. It was a three hour trip to Terre Haute, Indiana to run on the Lavern Gibson Championship XC Course. We arrived at 11 so that I could pick up my race packet. For participating in the race Nike game me a sweet winter hat. I, just like about all the other kids, wore it for my warm-up.

Potter asked me some questions about the race:

How did driving down the morning of the race effect your preparations?Going down the day of forced me to wake up a little early and it put us at the course three hours early. That extra time worked out as the three of us walked most of the course to check out what it had to offer. With a later race time I had to eat two meals before the race which is different but I handled that well.

Did you look around for familiar faces when you were standing on the line, did you race with any Missouri guys?I did look around before the race but didn’t see anyone I knew expect Billy Leighton who was in the same box as me (3 of 52). I remember watching Billy win the middle school 3k at Cape Notre Dame 2 years ago and I’ve seen him at Frostbite. During last K of the race, I saw and passed a couple familiar people: Ethan Lambert of Eureka, Jordan Cook of Rock Bridge, and Joe Meyer of SLUH. Didn’t really race with any of them but picked from the crowd and then picked them off. I talked with fellow Missouri Jesuit High School’s number 1 runners after the race: Tim Rackers from SLUH and Zach Herriott from Rockhurst.

How did the course play to your strengths and weaknesses?
In general the course was just fast. I went out in 5:01 without it feeling any faster because the first mile is straight and flat with one decent downhill. I thought the four sets of haybails were a strength for me as I made surges at them and got over them easily. The nice flat finish was great and really allowed me to have a big kick. The weakness was just the huge field (359 racers). I didn’t get out crazy so I had a bunch of guys to pass. I was passing guys during the 2nd mile but didn’t realize that pace had slowed down a lot.

Did you change your strategy at all from state?
Not really. I just did what I always do. I got a bit faster but that was just because that’s the way this course ran. I knew I was going to be able to run a really good last mile since there weren’t the hills like State.Happy with the PR?
Soooo Happy! No better way to end the season. And it was great to get some guys that got me at State (Lambert, Wilfong, & Cook).

What’s next?
TRACK! But first taking some days off which should be nice considering I’ve ran 49 days straight and 97 of the last 98 days. Then looking to have a big offseason to get ready for what will be an even bigger track season. I’ve got some important goals I want to reach. Oh yeah, and BLOG PARTY on Friday—it’s going to be awesome!

It was an incredible day. I had an absolute blast. I was so happy that I was able to share it with my dad and T-Bone. The event and race were really cool and a whole lot of fun. It was an awesome way to end an awesome season. Thank you to everyone who made it so amazing and memorable.