Bozeman Running Company Invitational

Well folks, I am officially a collegiate athlete now.  Montana State competed in their first cross country meet yesterday on our home course here in Bozeman.  It wasn't anything huge, but it was a nice way to start off the season.  Also, it was my first time running anything over 2 miles since last winter at NXN so it was good to get a sense for how it feels to run real distance again.  The pre-race nerves were back with a vengeance, and I can't say that I missed them, but that's all part of the deal.  This is how it feels to compete.  Your stomach turns sour.  Your heart feels like it's trying to crawl up your throat and make a getaway.  You begin to seriously question what made you think running was fun.  These are the moments you live for.

 

The race itself wasn't nearly so different from high school as I thought it would be.  I think that biggest difference was the number of people who ran under 18.  For some reason, I thought college running would be a completely new sport so I was pretty happy to find that you still just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other and sweating profusely for three miles in college.  

MSU 2015 freshies

It wasn't too bad, either.  I ended up coming in third overall and first on my team with a time of 17:33, which is my PR for the open three mile.  My race strategy could definitely use a little work.  I think I got too accustomed to racing the mile last spring because the first mile of this race felt like a jog, but I definitely regretted it by the second mile, and my legs were really mad at me by the third mile.  Also, post-race tempos are completed foreign to me.  We did a quick five-minute tempo after we finished and my whole body was appalled.  "I'm supposed to be done!" my lungs screamed at me throughout those five minutes.  But hey, I'm sure they'll thank me later.  I'm excited to see where this team and I will go after a few more weeks of training and a little bit more time in the training room to work on glute and hip strength for me.  Our next race will be on October 2nd at the University of Montana, so look out for the bobkitten crew there.