Utah XC Invitational

I've made a huge mistake. New (never worn) xc spikes + hot day + no socks = bye bye skin on heels. Ughhhh... you'd think I'd know what I'm doing by now.

Anyways, this was my first XC race since 2003. Essentially a tri-meet with BYU, Weber St, and Boise St, plus some unattached runners. After an awesome trip in the San Juans, my legs were a little dead, so I just wanted a good workout to shake the cobwebs out.

Plan was to start off slow and work my way up. I think I was close to last place at the 1K (Andrea said there were only 1-2 guys behind me). Stayed there for most of the next kilometer but I could feel the skin ripping off my heels. Uh oh. Thought about dropping out at 3K, but figured it couldn't be that bad so I essentially tempo-ed the rest of the way. Moved my way up to 13th place (19:37) but the faster I ran the more my heels hurt. Skin was ripped off both heels... gotta get this fixed up ASAP. 

Splits were pretty consistent. I was 16:05 at 5K so I'm guessing the last K was a bit long because 3:32 doesn't seem right. Pretty fun... hopefully I won't go another decade before my next xc race. I'm mad at myself for being an idiot with the no socks thing because considering everyone goes out too fast in XC, I probably could have done some damage in the second half of the race. 

Skipped the cooldown obviously. Hopefully I'll be able to run in Layton tomorrow. Maybe I'll have to wear Crocs!?

Great spectator course... lots of looping around so Andrea got some good shots.

The college race was just the opening act. The high school action was where it was at today. Alta XC guys (who I've been working with this summer) ran awesome - 6th place at the Murray Invite! [Results] And in round two of what is going to be a series of epic duels this fall, Kramer Morton outkicked Conner Mantz, 15:18 to 15:20. Its so cool to see two of the best runners in the country pushing each other so hard. Here's some photos from the high school XC meet. I know both of these guys... they are great kids. I run with Kramer quite a bit.