Griak xc meet

This weekend I was fortunate enough to travel with the Bisons to my first cross country meet. We left Friday morning and returned Saturday night to go to the Griak Invitational in Minneapolis. It was definitely a lot of hours on a bus but worth it! I was super excited to go and I'd heard quite a few stories about this race. It's huge! There were a few hundred people in each event and the entire course was lined with people cheering. The girls ran 6km and it was all marked out on a golf course with constant rolling hills. I was prepared for the worst, hearing that it was "uphill both ways," and although it was very challenging there was nothing too crazy. I was super pumped as I lined up with the girls, wearing my new Bison singlet. The start of the race was like no cross country event I've ever been in. It was so crowded and because of being unable to see where I was going as well as all the adrenaline, the first kilometer went by so fast. I lost sight of my team mates early on and it wasn't until a bit later I that I caught up to one of them, got passed by two that started out a bit more conservatively, and regained that invisible elastic band with another one. It was a great boost to try to hang on to some of these faster girls once I've got them in my sights. I probably started out a bit too fast because I felt myself fading pretty bad later in the race. The last two kilometers were probably the worst but I kept pushing through it and finished strong. I'm not sure what to think about how I raced or where I ended up because I don't have much to compare it to. At least I know that by the end I had left it all out there because I felt like I was going to fall over for about half an hour after the race! According to the results that I've now found I placed 282 out of 413 in the division with a time of 26:49. That put me 7th out of the girls on my team. Afterwards we watched the guys race and ran along the course to cheer them on, just like they did for us.

Whether or not everyone had the race they were hoping for, I have a huge amount of respect for every person on the team. Congrats to all! It's a great group and I feel lucky to travel with them. I love how accepting everyone is of us rookies even though there are a lot of us this year. I look forward to more opportunities to get to know these awesome athletes. It's great to hear some of the stories of the older people and get tips about the races. On Friday we leave for Saskatoon. Another long bus ride, but I'm sure we'll pass the time with weird movies, girls-only story writing, throwing a tennis ball around the bus, and more interesting adventures. I think by now I have met almost everyone on the team. As awkward as some people think it might be to ask people their name and start a conversation, it would only get worse in a few months from now when you realize you still don't know someone! Overall, this race was a good experience.

Anyways, the results can be found on the Bison site, the Minnesota site, or flotrack. For some reason none of these work on my computer right now so I'll try to post the link later.