True story - ask my friend Brian Diemer for confirmation.
Indiana University had a very good cross-country team my Junior year in college, coming off our 8th place finish both my freshmen and sophomore years. We were 2nd at the Kentucky invite on 9.20; 2nd at Notre Dame invite behind Michigan, 77-86; 2nd at the Indiana Invite behind Western Kentucky 39-41; and won the Big State/Little State (Indiana) meet with 21 points. The Big 10 conference meet was hosted by Michigan State in East Lansing, on Saturday November 1st, 1980.
I had run 2x5000m loop on Monday in the pouring rain - 17:49.67 and then 15:21.13, same loop, and then recovery runs the rest of the week. My mileage for the week was 60.0.
On Friday October 31st, we jogged the course as a team. I remember running one part of the course, around the 4 mile marker, where the line went straight, but the next flag was to my right over a small rise. You run point to point in Cross-country, and I remember thinking that if they did not put a flag up over night, I was going to turn right and run to the next flag. The next day on our warm-up run, I told the rest of the team to not follow the line, but angle to the right to the next flag.
Brian Diemer of the University of Michigan was a sophomore, and finding his form. He and I moved up through the race, and found ourselves in 1st and 2nd, running side by side, at the 2.5 mile mark. As we neared the 4 mile mark, I saw my turn, and took it. Brian ran straight. Over the rise I went, and picked up the next flag, at least 5 seconds ahead. I pushed on in the cold, and won easily (easily meaning I did not have kick with someone next to me, not that I did not run hard). I ran 24:04.9 for a course record. We tied with Michigan for the team title - we were 1-7-9-13-14-16, but the 6th man did not factor in breaking ties. Wonder why? I believe Kevin Higdon, whose father is the famed writer, Hal Higdon, was our #2 runner that day.
Years later, when Brian invited us to spend time at his father's lake house outside Grand Rapids, he asked me if I remember that race. As you read above, "Of course I do," was my response, and I continued to tell him about the 4 mile mark. "Did you think you cut the course?" No, because I had checked the day before and the day of the race where the flags were posted. "I always wondered ...." he said.
Two weeks later at the NCAA Regional meet, we ran our best race of the season, scoring 50 points to Michigan's 72. WE were 1-7-16-17-22-26-31 (!) raw score. I ran 29:46 10k for another course record. Dan Heikenin of Michigan was 2nd in 19:47, 47.5 miles for the week.
Then, 9 days later at NCAA's in Wichita, Michigan crushed Indiana. I was 20th in 29:55 and wrote "tired" in my log book, and we were 11th as a team with 305 points. I was fit, but 10k was the outer reaches of my performance. This can be verified as NCAA's were on November 24, and I ran track workouts on the 28th (2x200, 2x400, 2x300), Monday December 1st (4x400, 1x800 1:54); Wednesday (5 mile run then 1200m in 3:14 and 800 in 1:55); 10x300 on Friday (37.1 PR on #9, most in 44 seconds); 10 mile run on December 8th Monday in 55:20, and a short track workout on Wednesday (2x200 :29, :30; 3x400 61-60-59, 1x600 1:30).
Then on Saturday December 13th, ran the intersquad mile in 4:00.63 (auto timed): 60-58-60-62.
Maybe was trained to run a 5k on the track more than a 10k on the grass?
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