6K X-Country ASATAL 2013 - 3rd place

I know I promised no more race reports, but...I was only foolin'. This weekend I racked up my umpteenth 3rd place finish in Chile.

Ran in the local cross country finals yesterday (we started and finished on the track, in case you were wondering about the photos...but "you" weren't. because no one is reading this. just me. and the only thing i was wondering about is why my pillow smelled like ketchup when i woke up this morning.)

The 6k course was 4 loops, basically up-a-hill then down-a-hill X 4. The guy who won went off the front from the beginning, with myself and another guy neck-and-neck about 30 seconds behind. We would close the gap on the downhill and then lose ground on the uphill on each loop. Finally, I "made a move" on the guy next to me during the uphill on the 3rd loop. This means that I asked him if he ran here often and twirled my finger around one of my golden sausage curls. Plus bedroom eyes.

I was hacking and spuming along confidently in 2nd place until the end on the last loop. I looked behind me and saw 3rd place was RIGHT behind me. I tried to put a couple seconds on him in the downhill, but he fucking passed me right as we entered the track for the big finish in front of throngs of screaming fans. I tried to do something about it, but for the first time in months I was 100% max'd out, suffering, hopelessly dying on my feet. I crossed the finish line in total silence, before a stadium with about 8 people in it. The authentic track and field experience!

I finished in 21:21, which according to the pace calculator, is a 17:44 5k. Which is a PR by almost 30 seconds...so, I've got that going for me. Also, right before the race, I put in an hour jogging the hills and set a PR for my local climb. I got to the top and my legs went out from underneath me. So...yeah, all in all: a day marked by horrendous, anaerobic torture.

Here's first place. You can see 2nd and I comin' round the bend...

There's second!

There's turd!

This guy has been running in Chile since the 70's. What's rad about that is when he was out jogging back in the day, people literally thought he was insane. I mean, literally. They thought he had a mental problem and would stop by to see his family and ask if everything was OK with him. Juan is boss!