An Athlete's Perspective: Rust-buster
This is the second post in a series about being an athlete on the Colorado Christian University Cross Country team.
After training all summer by yourself, putting in long hours, and seeing no immediate outcome, all you can really think about as a runner is finally getting to those times you work so hard for: races.
The Rust-Buster can be a challenging race. Since all you have been doing is training, you expect sometimes (even though you know you're usually wrong) to be fast. But, as the name suggests, the Rust-Buster is about getting back into racing. Typically, everyone feels a little bit "rusty" for this first race of the season. This can be somewhat disappointing after so much training. The truth is though that this first race serves as pre-test or baseline for all the progress to follow.
For CCU, it was important to keep in mind that this race was going to help us measure the rest of the season. It didn't matter all too much. Coach ensured that no one raced too hard by capping the pace for the first 1k for the women and 2k for the men. All of this, of course, by no means suggests that everyone raced badly. In fact, CCU had quite the showing.
On the women's side, five of our very own ladies placed in the top 20 finishers (Rebekah McCabe, Mandee Middleton, Hannah Struttmann, Kayla Davis, and Brooke Genovese). Two of them even finished in the top ten, with Kayla Davis finishing 7th and Brooke Genovese placing 3rd. Overall, the women placed 2nd as a team. When comparing results from this year to last, it is easy to see drastic improvements. Last year only four girls ran under 17:13, this year 11 girls did. What's more is that CCU's freshmen girls held the top three freshmen finishing spots. As coach said, things are looking really good for our future!
On the men's side, Evan Verbal took first place beating out UCCS's David Kimaiyo. The team itself placed 3rd, coming close to Colorado College who placed 2nd. Overall, the men had a solid race. Anders Hansen, Abe Means, and Keaton Helm all executed their race plans exactly as coach hoped. Jonah Couture earned Most Improved Runner for this race after running a 22:32, compared to a 25:07 last year.
After the race, CCU and UCCS came together for a spaghetti dinner supporting the Harambee Foundation (no, it has nothing to do with the gorilla. Read more on their webpage or my blog post, Kenya). It was a good time to fellowship, relax, and eat, of course.
All-in-all, the team is satisfied with the Rust-Buster, but hungry to do more continuing on. Look for us this Saturday as we head to Gunnison for the Mountaineer Cowboy Invite!
After training all summer by yourself, putting in long hours, and seeing no immediate outcome, all you can really think about as a runner is finally getting to those times you work so hard for: races.
The Rust-Buster can be a challenging race. Since all you have been doing is training, you expect sometimes (even though you know you're usually wrong) to be fast. But, as the name suggests, the Rust-Buster is about getting back into racing. Typically, everyone feels a little bit "rusty" for this first race of the season. This can be somewhat disappointing after so much training. The truth is though that this first race serves as pre-test or baseline for all the progress to follow.
For CCU, it was important to keep in mind that this race was going to help us measure the rest of the season. It didn't matter all too much. Coach ensured that no one raced too hard by capping the pace for the first 1k for the women and 2k for the men. All of this, of course, by no means suggests that everyone raced badly. In fact, CCU had quite the showing.
On the women's side, five of our very own ladies placed in the top 20 finishers (Rebekah McCabe, Mandee Middleton, Hannah Struttmann, Kayla Davis, and Brooke Genovese). Two of them even finished in the top ten, with Kayla Davis finishing 7th and Brooke Genovese placing 3rd. Overall, the women placed 2nd as a team. When comparing results from this year to last, it is easy to see drastic improvements. Last year only four girls ran under 17:13, this year 11 girls did. What's more is that CCU's freshmen girls held the top three freshmen finishing spots. As coach said, things are looking really good for our future!
On the men's side, Evan Verbal took first place beating out UCCS's David Kimaiyo. The team itself placed 3rd, coming close to Colorado College who placed 2nd. Overall, the men had a solid race. Anders Hansen, Abe Means, and Keaton Helm all executed their race plans exactly as coach hoped. Jonah Couture earned Most Improved Runner for this race after running a 22:32, compared to a 25:07 last year.
After the race, CCU and UCCS came together for a spaghetti dinner supporting the Harambee Foundation (no, it has nothing to do with the gorilla. Read more on their webpage or my blog post, Kenya). It was a good time to fellowship, relax, and eat, of course.
All-in-all, the team is satisfied with the Rust-Buster, but hungry to do more continuing on. Look for us this Saturday as we head to Gunnison for the Mountaineer Cowboy Invite!