An Athlete's Perspective: kansas
This is the fourth post in a series about being an athlete on the Colorado Christian University Cross Country team.
These posts are getting more difficult to write. This is the case for two reasons: first, the amount of homework I am drowning in is unreal, and two, every race means that the season is coming closer to an end. As an injured senior, this isn’t always a nice reality; however, it is easier to handle when you are still able to travel with your team. For Kansas, this was definitely the case.
Traveling to Kansas went mostly smooth, minus the one stop that took an hour in Burlington, CO to get food (those are where those erie photos of the abandoned building are from). In any case, we made it in good time and in good spirits by the time we reached the course. It was warm and welcoming as always. The sun makes the course almost light up gold, especially in the morning time, while the Cathedral of the Plains looms over the trees.
Kansas is a great race for a myriad of different reasons, including the fact that it is just plain fast. After training for so long at altitude, it is a nice change to run on a (mostly) flat course at lower altitude. It was clear that the team responded well to the change.
Not only did a majority of the team get PRs, Brooke Genovese and Evan Verbal broke school records. Brooke ran the 5K in 17:37, beating former CCU XC athlete Reagan Mullen’s time, while Evan ran the 8k in 24:46, breaking his own record. In addition, the average team time compared to years past was around a minute faster for both teams. In 2015 the women's team time was 19:36, but this year was an 18:28. On the men’s side, the 2015 team time was 27:39, but 26:35 this year. Overall, things are looking great for the years to come!
Even with such a good showing in Kansas, the team is far from done with the season. The team has Conference in two weeks, then will be moving on to Regionals at Wash Park two weeks after that. We’ve still got weeks of great racing to go!
If you want to see more photos and maybe download some too, click here!
All photos copyright Cambria Bailey Photography. Please do not alter them in any way.
These posts are getting more difficult to write. This is the case for two reasons: first, the amount of homework I am drowning in is unreal, and two, every race means that the season is coming closer to an end. As an injured senior, this isn’t always a nice reality; however, it is easier to handle when you are still able to travel with your team. For Kansas, this was definitely the case.
Traveling to Kansas went mostly smooth, minus the one stop that took an hour in Burlington, CO to get food (those are where those erie photos of the abandoned building are from). In any case, we made it in good time and in good spirits by the time we reached the course. It was warm and welcoming as always. The sun makes the course almost light up gold, especially in the morning time, while the Cathedral of the Plains looms over the trees.
Kansas is a great race for a myriad of different reasons, including the fact that it is just plain fast. After training for so long at altitude, it is a nice change to run on a (mostly) flat course at lower altitude. It was clear that the team responded well to the change.
Not only did a majority of the team get PRs, Brooke Genovese and Evan Verbal broke school records. Brooke ran the 5K in 17:37, beating former CCU XC athlete Reagan Mullen’s time, while Evan ran the 8k in 24:46, breaking his own record. In addition, the average team time compared to years past was around a minute faster for both teams. In 2015 the women's team time was 19:36, but this year was an 18:28. On the men’s side, the 2015 team time was 27:39, but 26:35 this year. Overall, things are looking great for the years to come!
Even with such a good showing in Kansas, the team is far from done with the season. The team has Conference in two weeks, then will be moving on to Regionals at Wash Park two weeks after that. We’ve still got weeks of great racing to go!
If you want to see more photos and maybe download some too, click here!
All photos copyright Cambria Bailey Photography. Please do not alter them in any way.
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