I placed 31st individually and 22nd in team scoring at the USATF National Club XC Championships last weekend.

I ran 30:25 over the 6.29 mile course. For some reason it was .08 too long. Normally it's not a problem in XC, but I might have gotten under 30, for XC that would have been awesome. They changed the 10k course to include a really steep hill that we ran up and down 3 times, which legitimized it as a cross country course - at least to me. I got out fast enough, but I think I could have competed better over the last two miles. I beat the entire Zap Fitness team (a B team, I'm sure) three or four Hanson's team guys and all but one of the Boulder Running Co.'s team. They didn't all stack their teams, but I'm encouraged that I could run with that caliber of athletes.

The next step is a break. I haven't taken a real break from running in nearly two years, so I'm going to take a couple weeks and let my body recuperate. I've taken this last week and haven't run at all. I'll run some the next two weeks while back in KS, and then start sluggin' it out again when 2011 comes around. See you next year.