JZjersey from Brian Wandzilak on Vimeo.
All you need to know about how cold it was Saturday in Iowa for the 2013 edition of the Living History Farms Off Road Race is to watch that video above. Comes from my boy Jason Zakaras. He took a spill in some deep water and had to deal with that singlet for about 1200m.
Rarely complain about weather when running, and never when racing. What’s the point? Either you choose to run or you choose not to run. Nothing you can do about it, so why worry about it? Other than fodder for conversation, the weather is another piece of the story of your race. But it was a major factor this year. You run long enough and you get to encounter all kinds of race conditions. This was easily a top 5 coldest ever. Ranks up there with the Lincoln Holiday Run in 2010, but even more impressively it rivals the 2008 USATF Club Cross Country meet in Spokane and the USATF National Meet in St. Louis in 2012. Both of which were single digits without adding in wind chill or precip.
Less a race report today, more a commentary on cross country racing. But it was a good race for me personally. First time in years I felt strong running an XC race. Got out in what is typically a crazy start, made even more so by icy roads and turns. Amazed that no one went down in the group I was with. Over the next two miles, the front of the race spread out. Water crossings this year weren’t particularly bad. Not so deep, maybe one was more than knee high on me. Still had frozen feet when we got done. The wooded trails were way tougher than in the past. Leaf covered as usual, but this year a 1 inch dusting of snow made it treacherous at best, especially on some of the really steep hills. Fortunately was able to chase Andrew and Jason and have them as motivation for me. Course seemed longer than in past years and conditions forced me to run a more steady race than the usual redline the heart rate and recover.
Raced hard, competed, challenged some folks, ran a good time. Team placed well, had fun, brought back some good stories from Jason, Logan, Andrew, Cole, and Jayci. Not a bad morning, but the details are best left to reminiscing and embellishing over miles and/or beers.
It goes without saying that cross country rocks. Talking with the guys after the race and mulling over the individual race reports we had, one thing kept popping up. How racers would show different strengths on different parts of the course. This particular course is a jacked up mix of road running, corn fields, hay fields, single track dirt, wooded trails, water crossing (deep and shallow), rocky trails, hills, and flats. The beauty of XC is that as a runner you are going across the terrain as it is presented to you. There are no man made obstacles, the course is at it is. Cross country in general forces a runner to pull from all disciplines and mentalities in running.
When “true” cross country the speed, strength, flexibility, recovery, pacing, self-awareness, racing ability, and toughness all come into play. There were people in the pack I was with who would pull away from me on the short, steep uphills. Then on the downhills and wooded, technical areas I found myself gapping them.
Like anything about anything in life, it is hard to nail down one reason as to the “why” of loving something. The appeal of cross country running is that it is so pure. Cross country running existed before any other form of running. Sure, it might have been a matter of survival to be able to chase down your food. But in the modern era, this discipline is one where you HAVE to let go of being so serious about splits and conditions, and just freaking run as hard as you can.