We ran in the Crimson Classic yesterday at the U of Alabama's home course, which is one of the nicest courses I have seen in my 20+ years of coaching. The course was in great shape - grass cut low, no wet spots at all and clearly marked. You couldn't ask for anything more. Well, we could have asked for a bit cooler weather but it's the same for everyone in the race so why complain.
One of our main goals for this race was to try and develop more consistency between our first and second miles - both for the men and women's squads. We were very successful in this phase of the race. Every runner cut his/her "gap" in at least half and a few runners actually went faster in the 2nd mile than they did in the first. We will continue to work on this in an attempt to have everyone's mile # 1 vs mile # 2 difference down to 10" or less. We are going to work on that again in practice this week and then really focus on it once our race this coming weekend is over.
We had 3 male runners surpass the goals we had set for them in this race. For the most part, the other men ran about 20"-25" slower this race than the goals that had been set for them. I attribute a good deal of this to the weather - it was in lower 80's at the end of the men's race and in the upper 80's by the end of the women's race. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the guys' performance - for 7 of our runners this was their first ever 8K and they all said it was much more difficult than they had imagined it would be.
Our # 1 and # 2 women had good races, with our usual # 2, Polina Babkina, beating our usual # 1, Carolyn Mancuso, for the first time ever. Our #3, #4, and #5 runners were all held out of the race due to illness and/or injury. Our # 6, #7 and #8 ladies tried to pick up the slack and had some success. Our usual # 8, Anne Enoch, ran a PR in this race and almost caught our # 5 girl in the process. That was an encouraging sign. Once we get our group back in action, we should be in good position to continue working toward our season's goals.
We race in Memphis, TN this ocming weekend at the Brooks' Twilight Meet. Race time is at 8:45 PM so we are hoping it will be a bit cooler. Early forecast is for a heat wave around Memphis so we may not get that cool weather we all want. The Twilight Meet is a lot of fun - huge field with some great competition. It finishes on the track inside the main soccer stadium so there is always a large crowd cheering at the end of the race. The course is essentially flat as a pancake, except for the little 1 step eleveation between adjacent soccer fields. We should be able to record some good times in this meet. We have a traditional post-race meel at IHOP each year and everyone looks forward to that. It makes the long run the next morning a bit tougher, but no one ever mentions giving up the IHOP part of the weekend, so we'll do it again.
Right now our main focus is on getting our injured/sick women runners back into action and keeping our guys healthy - our # 1 guy sat out this race due to an ankle sprain and we are hoping it won't be a long lasting injury for him.
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