USA National Mountain Running Championship 2011 Recap

The big race is finally over and done with... Now 6 men will toe the line three months from now in the largest city of Albania known as "Tiranë". Going into the race I knew what to expect. The course was tailored to resemble as closely as possible the course the members of the World Team will experience in Albania at this years World Mountain Running Championships. Paul K. did a great job preparing a course that was as identical as it gets when you compare two courses more than 4,000 miles apart. When you look at graph of elevation changes of the course we ran in comparison with the World Championship course its like staring at a set of twins with just a hair of separation.

The race

Not much excitement for my race. I had the lead for a few seconds at the peak of the first ascent and quickly lost it as we started to descend. I got a small scare early into the descent with a little ankle roll. I eased up to make sure it wasn't anything serious. By the time I reached the bottom I couldn't even feel the pain anymore, numbed from the body jarring descent to finish the first lap. A few seconds after passing the announcer booth on the first lap I faintly heard the speakers scream out that another runner was coming closely behind. When I glanced back I realized I had a safe lead, although early, still safe. Ran alone from there on out. I had my sights set on the lead, but slowly I lost grasp of it and eventually settled for second. The worst way to lose is when you had the perception of a win in your hands and accidentally drop it like the water at an aid station. When I had the lead I should not have backed off, but I did not realize how fast the course was and how short the race would be in terms of time. Its a mistake everyone makes at some point, my time just happened to come at a Championship and so, a great learning experience. I can't be too upset, this marks my 8th USA National Team and gives me the opportunity to represent my country once again at the World Championships.

Currently I have the highest finish of an American since Mountain running has become an IAAF World Championship with my top finish at 10th in 2010. I think with the team we have, a medal is obviously possible. Every guy on the team this year has experience, talent, and from what I could gather, a desire to win. Most of the guys on the team have already run at World Championship events so they know exactly what to expect. I would like to improve on my 10th place finish. I think this will be a very tough year to do so as the course does not have much climbing, nor much descent. So, the African countries who have been known to field very fast flat landers on their National Mountain Running Teams will have a field day with the cross countryesque course in Alabania. We Americans have speed too though, so hopefully we can mix it up and bring home some type of medal from the Championships!
News Article on the race

It was quite a sight to see so many Inov-8 athletes make the World Team. After the race I was chatting with a spectator and they mentioned something even more spectacular than the fact that Inov-8 had 4 athletes make the World Team. Out of the 6 athletes who made the team, ALL 6 athletes were wearing Inov-8's. I didn't believe him at first, but of course I had to go Sherlock Holmes on the scene and I checked every athletes race shoe out. Sure enough the guy was right and apologies were in order. Next up, North American and Central American Mountain Running Championships where I will be joined by Inov-8 Teammates Gina L & Tommy M! More to come....