Final xc race ever tomorrow at conference meet. Will literally run it however you all want me to

BALLS OUT FROM THE FRONT then vomit at the finish!!!

#gobigorwearathong

Is your team favored to win the meet? If not, get up front and rough up some of the top runners from the other teams.

out hard and race to win

If it's a fairly fast course and you feel like you are still in that 27:11 shape, why not just run a smart race and lower your PR?

Everyone is going to be running fast, as it's nearing the end of the season. When I ran there were teams that would run against us repeatedly during the season. I would find a person I'd been running with in other meets who ran a little bit faster and beat him in the last 2k. Few things are better than beating a guy from a "rival" school while running well.

WeRunCanada wrote:

BALLS OUT FROM THE FRONT then vomit at the finish!!!

#gobigorwearathong

Yes. Literally. Run with your balls out.

Get out with the lead pack, and run on all fours.

This is good advice from Old D2 Guy. I would pick a worthy rival, and take it from there...and really bust it in that last 2k. I think you will surprise yourself. Have a great race!

5th year senior scrub wrote:

So, Letsrun, how do i run this?

You do this literally however I tell you to do it.

Get a 20 meter lead on the front pack in the first mile then turn around and yell "yall scared to do it how I do it". Finish the race with a pb

So this year you have run 5:28 pace to run 27:11. Do you run with a GPS watch? I don't care if it will get you disqualified, borrow one if you have to.

Try going out the first 1/2 mile evenly AND finishing it in 2:45. Then run the second 1/2 mile in 2:45 again. Use the pacing function and nail it exactly.

Then speed up to 5:20 pace and finish the race as evenly as you can. If you really are in 27:11 shape, you will crater at about 4.5 miles. If you have never really paced correctly, you will run 26:40 +/- GPS error.

The tricks to making it work are to not start fast off the line, to exactly hit an even 5:30 for the mile, to speed up to only 5:20 pace and most importantly (because it is your last race ever) to hold the 5:20 pace even if you think you are going to crater at 3.5 miles.

For once in your life, stop thinking and follow the plan. Good luck.

what about your regional meet?

Similar college PRs here, 27:00 8K and something like 27:07 or 27:10 my senior season.

I had some August-Septembr injury and illness issues that set me back that season and only had one good meet, a sort of nothing invitational the week or two before conference, where I was 2nd on the team and had a high overall placing. Did that with even pacing. At conference tried to run the same and moved up through 3.5 but then fell back some. So at regionals I tried to go out faster (5:00 first mile), and that didn't work great either. Although it was my season's best. Looking back would coulda shoulda run 5:20 and just tried to hold it.

Keep running. Post college running (XC too) is probably more fun than college.

To run 26:40 you need to run the first mile even and no faster than 5:30. Then hold 5:20 all the way to the line at 8k.

Back in the stone age when I ran this was not possible, we had no GPS. I don't mean that no one could pace, I mean that if you decided to do it a few days before the race you couldn't just turn it on or off.

The goal here is to run the best paced race you ever have as your last race.

Mr. Pancakes wrote:

Get out with the lead pack, and run on all fours.

THIS OMG PLEASE YES.

xcrunner6 wrote:

Mr. Pancakes wrote:

Get out with the lead pack, and run on all fours.

THIS OMG PLEASE YES.

Just so I'm clear here, you registered the username "xcrunner6?" Was the problem that you couldn't find something more generic that was available, so you had to settle for that?

OP: either run it as fast as possible with even pacing (don't intentionally go out in 530 if you plan to pick it up to 520s....), or do something outrageous.

Either way, you should stash some sort of costume (banana, chile pepper, beer bottle, something along those lines) about a half mile from the finish. If you are blowing up, stop and put on the costume really fast and then finish. If you're en route to a PR, kick it on in and leave the costume.

I say take it easy (like 7:15pace) and when your teammates ask you why you jogged the whole race, tell them you are saving yourself for your local Turkey Trot next month . . . "Gobble, gobble. . ."

Run a PB, you can dick around in every other race for the rest of your life

Contrary to other posts, don't negative split. Too many people to pass in XC - even splits will already require a lot of passing, just run a pace in which you you're passing some but not many. You probably already knew this. Also don't wear a Garmin.

helpful suggestion,

You have half of it right. He can dick around for the rest of his life.

As far as we know, he has never tried negative splitting. The best guess (you said he already knew he should go out too fast) is he has been doing it your way for 5 years and it has gotten him 26:58. It is a conference race with 7 or 10 on a team and say 12ish teams, not so many to pass like a regional meet.

Do this an you will have the eternal admiration of the Letsrun crew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjiHk3IOdyk&list=PLSfB06cgFn_SMoWwENhREv1wBtc6ZxyLW

q8w94jiosd0479 wrote:

helpful suggestion,

You have half of it right. He can dick around for the rest of his life.

As far as we know, he has never tried negative splitting. The best guess (you said he already knew he should go out too fast) is he has been doing it your way for 5 years and it has gotten him 26:58. It is a conference race with 7 or 10 on a team and say 12ish teams, not so many to pass like a regional meet.

Maybe, maybe not. I run even or negative splits for most road races, but cross country is a different animal. IN GENERAL, going out too slow leaves you stuck in traffic. Depending on the course and the field, maybe this will not be the case.