This past Saturday, seven of us and Coach flew out to Madison, Wisconsin for the Adidas Invite. The Midwest and things pertaining to that region of the U.S. are as enjoyable to me as corn syrup and dairy products are, which is to say they make me fat, red in the face, and vomit. Add in the fact that last year's Wisconsin Invite was a disaster, and we were very eager to show the race, and the region, who was boss.
The men's race was filled with 35 teams, of which over 15 were ranked, guaranteeing a fast and exciting race. This also presented a golden opportunity to pick up "at-large" points by beating some of those teams to help get us to NCAAs next month. The race course out there is about as perfect as an XC course could be -- rolling grassy hills, wide trails, and plenty of places for Coach to see us "along the way there and everything there."
As the race played out, we had John and Will up front, and the rest of us working together a bit further back. John got out really well and hung on for 73rd. Silas and Henry yet again ran good races, crossing in 94th and 102nd. I managed to not relive the death march that was Paul Short, finishing in 130th. Will had been battling a cold and what we later found out was a combination of hand, foot, and mouth disease and impetigo. He did what he could for the team despite looking like a rabies victim, scoring for us as our 5th man. On top of that, when I passed him with 200m to go, he yelled at me and got me so fired up that I passed 20 people in the finishing stretch. The guy is a team player. The results didn't come out for a while, but in the end we finished 21st as a team, not as high as we had hoped. We're confident that we are a better team than that result indicates, and are looking forward to Heps in 2 weeks. That race always brings out the best in us.
As it would turn out, Wisconsin and hand, foot, and mouth disease would get the last laugh. Our flight out of Wisconsin got delayed, causing us to miss our connecting flight in Chicago. After 12 hours of traveling, we finally made it back to Hanover, but not before a couple of us (Curtis and myself) had contracted Will's ailments. Apparently it's very contagious!
Some photos:
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| Henry and Silas early on. |
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| Curtis and I. |
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| John. |
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| Willy, about to bite someone. |
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| Dylan, looking lean. |
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| Silas hammering into the finish. |
-Steve
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