I ran my first cross country race in I think about three years this past weekend up in Greensboro. It was a pleasant experience. The college race was pretty small, but Liberty University showed up with their NCAA runner-up (and current favorite) Sam Chelanga. I saw him at the start, and that was about it. I also saw former NCAA champ Josh McDougal out on the course. I'm glad he was just there to watch. The course was a windy one through woods, mostly on wood chip trails and a few short bursts out on to the grass, with a slightly uphill 100m straightaway to the finish. I started out in third place behind Chelanga and another Kenyan from Liberty, and 5 miles later was still in third, but with the rest of the Liberty team coming up fast. I ran 25:58 to Chelanga's 24:45 and the other guy's 25:15 or something. Considering Chelanga's ran 22:50 at Pre-Nats last year, that gives me a 24:03...right? Oh well, I'll take it. What this really can be interpreted as, is that I'm in decent shape going into the 1/2 in about 3.5 weeks. I've also started a new workout that has really been working for me:

400m in 72 (4:48 or 5k pace) 1600m in 5:00 (or 10k pace) and 2400m in 7:45 (5:10 or 1/2 pace) I do these without stopping for a 4400m effort in 13:57, then I take a 4 min. break and do it again. on Tuesday I did it three times, which is probably the max for me right now. I think the last two 2400m efforts really start to feel like the middle or end of a 1/2 after all that running, and I'm right at pace.