Start of XC season

So today was my first cross-country race! I was really looking forward to the season pretty much since nationals were over. More than anything I felt like my running had really improved and I wanted to see where I was at. I was fairly confident that this would be a good season; I've done lots of hill training and have been injury-free for months. Still, I wasn't sure how my first race would turn out. Last year I mostly tried to stay with the lead pack and finish around top ten overall in my zone meets, top three for varsity. Provincials I definetely want to improve on. Last year I didn't have a super great race, I finished 29th with no particular reason why I didn't do better, it just wasn't there for me that day.
Anyways, today we showed up to Bird's Hill Park in the rain. As the only varsity girl today I was in charge of warming up the JV's. You should have seen the looks on their faces when I told them we would warm up 20 minutes in advance, which meant getting out of the bus immedietely while the boys sat in the nice warm, dry bus. I ended up letting them sit around a little longer as I checked out the course a bit. It had changed from what I have become used to running there. The start and finish were on a completely different place on the course, but similar distance. Which was still quite short unfortunetely. After a chilly warm-up I decided screw it, I'll just run in my singlet. Standing on the start line looking at others wearing warmer clothes made me rethink this a bit but it was too late, we were off. I knew that Catherine would be the one to pace off of for the first bit, and the strategy was to hang on to her as long as I could. Some other girls started out pretty fast, but on the first slight incline I found myself pulling away from them and several hundred meters into the race I realized that as long as I could keep up my pace I would come in second place. Sure enough, I kept Catherine in my sights and made up ground on the girls behind me. I tried not to look back too often. I've learned that I always have my best races when I don't look back. I was also cold, which was some encouragement to get the race over with faster! I crossed the line with a solid second place, nothing too exciting. But I was pretty happy with the outcome. Got some warm clothes on and waited to cheer on the JV girls. My sister raced which made me happy! The guys also did well, I'm proud of everyone that raced. After catching my breath I felt good again pretty fast. I like being able to recover quickly, especially because I plan on racing again tomorrow! It not as important because it's not really our zone, but I like this meet. It's a nice course, my triathlon friends will all be there, and the prizes are good. I mean, in grade ten I got a tenth place medal! Where else do you get tenth place medals? And grade eleven I got a first place trophy. I don't get too many of those. So tomorrow should be fun. Hopefully I've got another solid race in my legs and the weather improves!