I have to start the week with a big congrats to Coach Wilson and the Gopher women (photo courtesy of Eric) for their first Big Ten Cross Country title. In case you missed it, they beat Michigan State by 1 point on Sunday. Given that MSU was stronger upfront, the Gophers had to rely on their depth for the victory as their 6th and 7th runners beat MSU’s 5th place runner. Heck, even the Gopher’s 8th place runner beat MSU’s final scorer, but since only the top-7 count for team placing, that didn’t affect the outcome. And on the men’s side, the Gophers placed 2nd behind the powerhouse Badgers. The biggest surprise of the meet goes to Hassan Mead. The true freshman won last year’s AA Class title and on Sunday, he placed 2nd overall. Defending Big Ten Champ Chris Rombough placed 4th overall.
Personally, I had a great weekend of running too. Saturday included a 14 mile group run. Since I tend to run pretty easy by myself, it’s nice to get in a stronger paced run at least once a week. Of course, the rest of the group is just jogging while I hang on by a thread, but that’s alright with me. That run gave me 79 miles for the week on 7 runs.
Sunday I bumped my long run by another mile, making it 17 miles, 15 of which were on the trails. I’m not sure what other runners are doing, but I spent over 2 hours on the trails and only saw a handful of hikers – no runners at all.
For the most part, I try to have quotes of the day come from runners. That’s not the case for today (at least I don’t think Henry ran), but I thought the quote fits, given my early morning routine.
Quote of the day;
“The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
It is interesting that you can run for hours on a trail and not see anyone, but I think I know the reason. Late Fall/Winter running is different than Summer running--people are apt to run anytime during the day instead of only the morning, particularly on Sundays. For instance, during the summer, I always run early on Sundays but this past Sunday I didn't get around to run (at Leb Hills) until 3 pm. Heck, it was the nicest part of the day for a run...
ReplyDeleteKirk, good point. You're probably right, but I still don't think a lot of people like to run trails.
ReplyDeleteI imagine 3 PM was nicer than the 32 degrees I ran in.