Two (and one) Down.

So I was gonna do a recap of preseason, but I never got around to it. My Bad. So here is a little of that, plus a triple race report!

So, to kick off preseason, I decided to try my hand at a 7km trail race at Great Glen Trails as a benefit to my friend and Olympic Biathlete Sean Doherty. It was a good mix of single-track and wide trail, and it was a decent field for a bunch of local runners.

Up and over the bridge! Photo by Meg Skidmore.

The course started with about 200m of wide trail before dropping into the first bit of ST, and had quite a few technical pieces to it, but was still a blast! I ended up first overall (second if you count Sean, who raced as a bandit) in 28:36, and came home/went to school with a sweet new 'Adidas Climatube"

Right behind Sean! Photo by Meg Skidmore.

Following that race, I drove with my dad back to Winooski Park for preseason running camp, which was pretty much the same as last year, but with a few new faces from the seven first-time runners we picked up this season.

After camp, classes started, then that Saturday we had or first race of the season. This is the third time we have run the Shacklette Invitational at St. Anselm College, and it the best we have run as a team to date. The race started out rather slow for this meet, with the leaders going out rather conservatively for the first 5k.

Somewhere around 5k. Photo by Coach Joe Connelly.

After that, though, they picked it up, as did everyone else in chase. For SMCXC, I led the team to 8th place out of 9, with a 41st place finish overall. Our next three (Liam, Ross, and David) were within 15 seconds of me, all above 50th place.

200m to go. Photo by Coach Joe Connelly.

It was a good team effort, and the rest of the top 4 for us were all in their first college race!

Yesterday was the Vermont Technical College Invitational, but this year on a new course. Things went out a little fast (my bad, again), but as a team we were able to hang on and win the overall, with Ross placing third, myself fourth (30:03), Liam sixth, and David seventh.

Fast start. Photo by Vermont XC

This edition of the course started the same as always, with a fast first mile followed by a killer downhill into a cow field. But we then climbed into this campground, which added even more climbing on the loop in there. Also, the course measured long by a bit. But anyways, it was a great race!

I am in much more pain here than the smile says. Photo by Vermont XC

This coming weekend the team has a double effort (at least the nordic guys do), with the Sleepy Hollow TT, followed by our first team appearance at the NYSEF Climb to the Castle!