Emerald City Open Race Recap

The Emerald City Open marked my second XC race for Team Darkhorse this season. Hosted by Seattle University, the event was well organized with a larger pool of runners compared to the PLU Invitational. The field comprised of a healthy mix of both club and collegiate teams, including runners from three Division 1 schools (Seattle University, University of Washington and Oregon State University, although the UW did not have enough runners to score as a team). 

The course consisted of repeats of a two kilometer Upper Woodland Park loop next to Green Lake which definitely has its fair share of hills. This time around, the women's event took place first and I headed over to the start line to cheer on my teammates before heading off to warm up. The women's team huddled together in true XC camaraderie fashion with a pre-race Team Darkhorse chant. 

Start of the Emerald City Open Women's 6k.
Photo credit thanks to Daniel Julian.

After the conclusion of the women's race, I met up with teammates Zak and Reuben and joined them on a preview run of the course loop. The warm-up was a little shorter than I would have liked but we were out of time as runners were called to the starting line. With a few final strides, I lined up at the designated Team Darkhorse segment on the start line.

Start of the Emerald City Open Men's 8k.
Photo credit thanks to Daniel Julian.

There was no pre-race chant. Inner introvert rejoiced. I took a moment to look around and noticed a couple runners I remember trying to catch at the PLU Invitational a couple weeks prior. In a team e-mail from the night before, one of our teammates who could not make the race wished us good luck and offered a phrase of advice which for some reason stuck with me.

"Think about three parts to the race: 1st part Calm, 2nd part Confident, 3rd part Courageous!"

Alright. Calm. "Breathe in: I am, Breathe out: Here now". The start gun went off and unlike the PLU Invitational, I was surprisingly able to maintain a controlled pace at the start. Sure, most of the field was passing me by but I knew I should stay focused on the bigger picture and that I had the whole race to pick off runners on my own terms. For the first of four loops, I fell in stride with Reuben and we worked together on the first major uphill.

Reuben and I working together during the first loop.
Photo credit thanks to Daniel Julian.

Finishing the first loop I passed fellow team members on the sidelines who yelled words of encouragement and letting me know it was time to start picking targets ahead of me. Successfully keeping the first part calm, I was ready to transition into the second part of the race with confidence. The Green Lake Track Club uses the Upper Woodland Park for a lot of our hill and strength workouts and between the calm/controlled start and experience running these same hills on many of my training runs, a feeling of confidence was easy enough to find. Feeling strong, I used this confidence to push past a number of runners. 

Down the Hill.
Photo credit thanks to Daniel Julian.

It wasn't until the third lap that I found my true race pack which consisted of a couple Olympic College runners and a Seattle University runner. Still feeling strong, I pushed past one of the Olympic College runners but I noticed both Seattle University and Olympic College singlets in my peripheral vision calling my surge as we began our fourth and final lap.

Down the hill.. again...
Photo credit thanks to Daniel Julian.

After a year of racing 5k events, sure enough after 3 laps (6k) my body was naturally ready to start calling it quits. What was I doing still running? Would my legs hold out with over more than a loop left? How could I pick off any more runners? The idea of playing possum for a couple hours was becoming more appealing by the second. In fact, if I slipped on one of the muddy sections in the next few minutes, maybe I should take it as a sign and just stay down. Uncertainty. Doubts. Excuses. I guess that's what it means to be courageous in a race. Simply putting one foot in front of the other when these negative thoughts begin racing in your mind faster than your legs are racing out there on the course. I let my body relax and focused in on my running form. I tried to keep my stride smooth and light. I rounded the final turn with less than 400 meters left to go and made one final push. 

Gravel/dirt section before the uphill.
Photo credit thanks to Daniel Julian.

The Olympic College and Seattle University runner pushed two seconds harder though and passed me right before the finish line. I crossed with an official time of 31:41 which placed me 74th out of 96! On paper, my performance looks far from amazing. I both ran slower than I did at the PLU Invitational and pretty much close to last. However, as the course was much more difficult and the field was comprised of amazing runners, I am very content with how I raced that day. Maybe that should be part of the day's race mantra:

1st part Calm (check), 
2nd part Confident (check), 
3rd part Courageous (definitely check, who knew courage could hurt so good?), 
4th part Content (check, perhaps even on the threshold of proud).


Post Race Thoughts/Comments/Updates:

1. The feeling of community and support at these XC races continues to impress me. Everyone there shares a passion for running and it definitely shows.

2. Our final XC race for the season will be the NW Regionals at Lincoln Park on November 23, 2014. 

3. Congrats to SRC runners at the USATF Trail Half Marathon National Championship at lake Padden earlier this month. Very strong performances among a very impressive field.