Lehigh-Lafayette

[frojoe23]

Well, it looks like Lehigh got a very strong team effort and put up a perfect score in the annual dual against Lafayette. Haven't talked to Dan about the race, but he did put it to the Lafayette kid that edged him out two weeks ago.

[frojoe23]

www.lehighsports.com/assets/sports/xcountry/Lehigh%20Lafayette%20Cross%20Country%20Results.pdf

Should've posted this with the original post.

[Justin]

That's the way to beat them! Go Lehigh!

The conditions looked horrible for racing, if you ran Saturday you'd know, I did 10 and felt like I was running underwater. Whetzel put down a pretty good time considering the conditions. Meet of Champs this Saturday is their first real competition, should be good, a great opportunity to run some real fast times at VCP.

[flyinghighrunner]

Just wondering....does Lafayette only have 5 guys/7 girls or did they not run everyone?

[Justin]

They have 19 guys on their roster, and finished 7 at the Lehigh Valley Champs the week before. I don't know what the heck is going on over there, they used to have a strong team and have really fell off the past 7-8 years. When I was competing it didn't matter if you were sick, tired, slightly injured, or whatever you were racing in the dual meet if you could walk.

[dan]

hello friends.

this meet was ridiculous in the fact that we raced at 10AM and there was 85 degree heat with 99% humidity. it was not fun and not quite the lark i was hoping for.

the kid from lafayette tried to do the same crap as last week and i SLAMMED the door in his face. haha. only kidding, though i actually kind of did.

desired paces for the front group were supposed to be 5:05, 10:10, and then faster. however, once the first mile was passed in only 5:10 in what felt like 5:00 effort, it became apparent that these were not the same conditions as two weeks ago.

the two mile mark approached and passed (surely 10:10, right?) and the split was 10:36. at that point, i knew i would be running a fair amount slower this week, so my goal became to beat the lafayette kid and ensure the sweep

at three miles (16:00), i was pretty well finished. i was sitting in 5th position on my team, with 4 guys clearly in front, and running with me were the lafayette kid and one of my teammates, kenny. i knew that the lafayette kid would smoke me over the last 1000 if i let it get that far, so i decided to try and drop him. it didn't work...

i am not one to continually try and lose kids over the latter stages of a race. if it looks hopeless, i usually subjugate and move on with my life. however, this time was different. around 3.5 miles, i did a little surging, a little praying, and a little ballgrabbing. i got about 5 meters on the kid and told myself that if i could hold him off another minute or two, then he would be finished. so i dug deep around the "grass track" part of our course, which is wide, slightly downhill, and very long, and someone came up on my shoulder as i headed toward the bridge at four miles. it was kenny, luckily, and he mouthed, "he's finished."

i knew that even though we had broken him, it would still be a race if he could kick from 600-800m out, so we had to keep rolling and get far enough ahead. along 4-mile hill, i asked my dad, "how far?" and he told me (accurately, i might add) "15 meters." at the top of the hill, i asked mom and theresa and they eventually figured out that i was pointing behind me to the kid and not to my mouth (they thought i said "i barfed" rather than "how far") and they told me "30 feet." the lead was growing but i still wasnt comfortable with it.

usually in the last 1000m i coast in, but this time i really dug down. i hate doing that, but knowing that the possible sweep rested in my hands, i had to go for it. i knew i was clear of him, but didnt like the looks of his kick as i had seen how much trouble he had given my other teammate, lampi, the week before. lampi is much faster than me, so i didnt want to mess with this kid in the last straightaway.

anyway, even after all the surging crap, i only passed the four-mile mark in 21:30 and then made it to the finish in 26:45. effortwise, i feel like this race in conditions similar to two weeks ago would have yielded 26:00 easily.

it was a great day for our team, as we had a lot of kids step up. as for lafayette, two of their guys dropped out and then one got back on the course later and finished with a "NT." that is how their scoring got completed. as for why they have 17 rostered and only 6 racing, that is anyone's guess.

we finally got the elusive 15-50 sweep, and made it all four years of kicking their butts during my tenure here. this week we look for mile repeats at VO2 max pace and then a killer invite on the weekend as we travel to VCP for the Iona Meet of Champs- it is our first chance to see Navy, our biggest league rival at this point, head to head, and we are all looking to drop some nasty times.

thanks for the coverage of this event- i am trying to swing home next weekend, so maybe i can meet up with you guys. ill be in touch- DAN

[flyinghighrunner]

Nice recap and good job Dan. Keep tearin it up!

[dan]

tuesday = workout day

5 x 1 mile at vo2 max pace with equal time rest. we ran on our grass track (1000m loop, will run it 1.6 times)

5:02.83
4:59.41
4:57.89
5:01 (missed my watch)
5:02.03

i got stomped during this workout, too, as mcclimon, wetzel and lampi all finished anywhere from 3-8 seconds ahead of me on each repeat.

for feeling like such a piece of worthlessness, i am surprised at how fast we ran. etters even told us that the course was 3 seconds long after he remeasured it with his 1940's wheel.

iona is looking good - DAN

[Justin]

It looks like you guys are ready to roll. Remember not to listen to what other people may say, VCP is a fast 8k course.

[frojoe23]

Good luck this weekend. Looks like you are ready to roll. Don't get blinded by those lights on Broadway!