Unfortunately, I live near St. Leo in Tampa/St. Pete. Why did the hold the meet at St. Leo? It is uncomfortable to run here anytime in the middle of the day and serious runners train early.
The under 30 minute time is impressive. It was very humid Saturday.
In this case, they actually set the meet at a place in Florida that has very big, steep hills, not that that should have been an issue for runners from high mountains in Colorado. The quads are shot for three to four days after running on the roads up there, where a lot of cyclists also go to train. But running on grass in xc wouldn't do all that. The issue here on top of the hills was really that it was very humid at that hour on Saturday in central Florida, and when the sun was out it was actually a little uncomfortable even for people from here, given the time of year.
Bless you.
Why the f have this race in a damn swamp? It’s just dumb. Next year - have it on a glacier - then a beach, then a track, then at 10kft In Leadville. Then a chuck-e-cheese.
-OR- Have a damn xc meet under the conditions which I don’t know determines the best xc runners not who is best at preparing for outlier conditions. This was like 3 years of these guys preparing only to have a stupid hot day cost them well earned results. I’m serious why not have Nationals at 8500 ft next year?
Imimpresssed wrote:
coahc wrote:
Flew there to watch from Australia in 2016 and the conditions were terribly humid. Big disadvantage for guys coming from the cold.
GVSU came from a cold weather home. How did they prepare?
Michigan is humid AF. Not really rocket science how a Michigan team who trains in mega humid conditions would succeed in a simiiar environment
Goodness... Michigan is humid AF? Lol. More humid than Tuscon? Absolutely. As humid as central Florida? Not even close. I grew up in Michigan but lived in central Florida for 5 years. The Tampa area is considerably more humid. I can't believe this has to be stated... St. Leo hosted DII XC Nationals on the same course in 2016. GVSU was in 1st place position with less than a mile to go. With less than 1k to go they had a runner who was in the top 20 that faded all the way back to 80th and basically collapsed at the finish line. They had another runner fall back around 20 spots during the final K who would be their 5th runner. Adams St finished strong and won comfortably. It seemed to be that GVSU had planned their race accordingly based on the humidity, hills, and probably took into consideration what happened last time. Colorado School of Mines top runner, on the other hand, went out very aggressively and it appears the conditions and course got the better of him. No real secret. Had that not happened GVSU still would have been in a good position to potentially win but it would have been a tight race. Coming from Michigan didn't give them some insurmountable advantage by any means.
randomtucsonguy wrote:
Imimpresssed wrote:
GVSU came from a cold weather home. How did they prepare?
Michigan is humid AF. Not really rocket science how a Michigan team who trains in mega humid conditions would succeed in a simiiar environment
Only Americans complaining about weather. Adams, Augustana, Springs, Western, Christian.. didn't hear them complaining as loudly as Mines.
Mines beat DI #4 Arkansas at their home meet, Chile Pepper, earlier this year. Arkansas may have sat one or two guys, but wow John McDonnell never would have let his team lose their home meet at all costs. GV clearly the best in DII, both look like top 10 DI teams.
Is it possible to go mining for Bitcoin at the school of (crypto)mines?
Arkansas didn't sit 1 or 2. They ran their JV team. You are insane to think that any D2 team could beat Notre Dame or Wisconsin.
rmacdaddy wrote:
Mines beat DI #4 Arkansas at their home meet, Chile Pepper, earlier this year. Arkansas may have sat one or two guys, but wow John McDonnell never would have let his team lose their home meet at all costs. GV clearly the best in DII, both look like top 10 DI teams.
Did you look at the results? Arkansas didn't run their top 4 guys. Their top pacer at Chile Pepper was their #5 guy and he still finished ahead of all the Mines runners. I will never understand how people can say things like this with evidence so easily found online to the contrary. Arkansas would have put 5 before Mines' 1 with their top 4 guys holding back.
I was at the meet. The early pace was totally insane based on the humidity and the course, which is definitely one of the harder courses I've seen. GVSU ran a really smart race...they earned that win with patience.
Yes, it was humid. Yes, the course had some hills, but looked like an actual XC course to me. Unfortunately with people moving to fall track, that a few hills put them in distress.
rmacdaddy wrote:
5k splits:
https://results.leonetiming.com/XC.html?mid=468514:25 at 5k for Mines' Powell, 27 sec ahead of the Grand Valley guys who would go 1-2. That might be the dumbest race execution I've ever heard of given the heat/humidity. If Mines had run a normal race plan, they would have been close to GV. Hope their 2 guys recover from the heat illness.
college sports is exciting because of the "anything can happen" factor like this.
bad decision making in the heat of the moment levels the playing field a bit!
Is it possible to pay them off with crypto mined at the school of mines?
randomtucsonguy wrote:
Imimpresssed wrote:
GVSU came from a cold weather home. How did they prepare?
Michigan is humid AF. Not really rocket science how a Michigan team who trains in mega humid conditions would succeed in a simiiar environment
Mich is not nearly as humid as Fla. Mich has a few genuinely uncomfortable days per year as hot and humid goes. Some summers none. GVSU even farther north. Fla sucks for almost everyone.
Wow Arkansas is a total embarrassment to John McDonell's legacy. Not running at their home meet!? Was their varsity training in Iten at the time?
Notre Dame blew up so bad that GV would surely have beaten them, but obviously not if they both ran well. Point being, GV, Mines, and Adams would be decent in DI at nationals, very respectable programs.