Club XC

Another year another Club Cross in the books. Clubs is and will always be my #1 favorite race of the year (don't worry Richard Fannin, Gate River is a close second!) and this time didn't disappoint. It was its usual adventure of never-ending amusement with the most fantastic group of people ever to be assembled onto a single team, or piled into a single van. Then of course there was the race. I know, I know...too cross-country-ish for some, which is understandable, but I loved it. I will say though that a few months ago in wondering and questioning and agonizing over whether or not to get my knee fixed or wait till after Clubs, that I am so, SO glad that I did it when I did, absolutely no way could I have picked my way through that course with stuff the way it was. You can always think of a million things that you could or should have done differently in a race, but all things considered I'm pretty grateful for how it all turned out, and we came away with second place, which was great considering how loaded up that race was.

Another reason big races like this are awesome: they're like one big runner-fiesta-gala-reunion-pow-wow-shindig-of-running-and-merrymaking...thing. I geek out over stuff like this, and I'm not ashamed. I mean, almost got taken out by a panic-stricken looking Alan Webb sprinting to the start and I was actually excited about it. I stood next to my biggest runner-girl-crush EVER, Lauren Fleshman, on the line and I wished SO bad that I had a Sharpie on me at that moment so that she could autograph my bib real quick before the gun went off. Plus, it's always good to look down the results list and see names of people who seemed to disappear or have flown under the radar for a bit come back out of the woodwork and start the climb back up again (Angela Bizarri, Jess Tebo, and Mel Lawrence to name a few. I'm sure there are some guys too but I'll admit that I'm woefully inadequate when it comes to following men's running. Horribly sexist, I know). Also, it was great to see little Laura Thweatt get the win, that makes two years in a row of a woman from Colorado taking the individual title.

Anyway, this post is slightly devoid of any personality whatsoever. I feel sorta like, I don't know...mentally hungover right now I guess (not that kind of hangover, there were no Amaretto Sours at the after-party unfortunately. Must be a Bend thing.), from getting so amped up for so many months for that little 6k race, considering that was the biggest carrot to make a strong post-op comeback last fall. But now there's USA XC in Boulder on the docket--8 weeks away, so best be keeping the nose to the grindstone.

Here are all of us telling everyone to have a Merry Christmas: