NXN- Austin Sprague's Excellent Adventure, Race Day
I woke up at 7:00 because we had to leave shortly after. I went down to breakfast to find out that they did not have any bagels left. I began to get worried because before all of my morning races I eat a peanut butter bagel and a banana. Instead of a bagel I had to substitute it with an English muffin but it did not bother me. We left for the course and made it to Portland Meadows. It was freezing. Twenty degrees to be exact and the inside of the grandstand was also very cold even though it was covered. I found a spot in the sun and warmed up. I sat in my little booth and watched the prerace webcast on the televisions. NXN had their own channel for all of the people in the grandstand to watch on the televisions in their booths. I sat there and watched the girl’s race and then at the conclusion of the girl’s race I was almost ready to go warm up. I did a 12 minute warm up with Coach McClay and was feeling very good. Did my normal routine of warm up and before I headed to the line.
I was introduced with my southeast team. Once they had introduced the whole southeast team we ran down the homestretch of the finish with smoke around us. We got our remaining stuff from our tent and headed to the line. I was in the box right next to Cerake Geberkidane and my staring box was filled with all of the media. The southeast boys were box 27 which was the right side of the pack. I did my final prayers and pump up with Coach McClay and finished up strides. Three minutes before race time I began to strip off clothes. I had my lucky duck socks on and was covered in olive oil where my skin was exposed. (Quick side note: Olive Oil is awesome when it comes to keeping your body warm in the cold!)
The started called us to the line and the race was started with a cannon. I got out VERY hard because I knew in a race like this I did not want to mess with being boxed. 1000 meters into the race and I was just a couple steps behind the leaders and was feeling good. The first set of whoop-de-doos were intense because of the tight pack I was running with. They are like nothing I have ever ran before. By far the hardest part of the race! Went through the mile in about 4:40 and was still feeling good. I could tell the leaders were beginning to separate themselves from the pack but I still held my ground. I tried staying as smooth as possible for as long as possible. I continued to hold my pace through two miles and then the race began to get very hard. About 300m after the two mile was the second set of whoop-de-doos and man did the second round of those kill my stride and legs. From that point on I began to feel the race but I feel like I did a great job maintaining my pace. I began to lose some places after the 800m to go but finished my race out strong. As I crossed the finished line I was relieved. My high school cross country days were over the second I crossed the line and I am so happy the way I ended it. I ended up finishing 32nd with a time of 15:35. So blessed to have had the opportunity to race some of the best names in the country and was very proud that I gave it my all.
