XC Update

Jordan had two races this week and both gave him some trouble. The first was on Tuesday in Medford at the Crusader Invitational, with a whole bunch of 1A, 2A and 3A teams.

The Bear Creek Park course is a fast one but temps were close to 100 degrees and Jordan didn't do a good job of getting hydrated before the race. (Famous last words: "I'm saving my Gatorade for afterwards.") About halfway through the race, it was clear that he was laboring. He still managed to record a PR of 20:43 but he was well behind his teammates. He could have done at least a little better if he simply had known the course better, since he came around the final bend and saw the finish line when he thought there was still a fair amount of race left to run. He sprinted the last 150 meters at a pretty quick pace. Last year, he ran 24:10 on the same course.

Yesterday, some of the team traveled to Coos Bay for the 10,000 meter Prefontaine Memorial. This was a huge open race with over 1000 runners. Jordan finished 160th out of 571 male runners in a time of 43:47. I think this means he averaged 7:03 per mile. Interestingly, he outran all but thirteen of the 365 women in the race.

Even though the weather was cool, Jordan again messed up on his hydration and after the race he was pretty sick with heat exhaustion. As he put it, he "puked all over the BiMart restroom." It was Lucky Saturday at BiMart, I guess. His coach says he's now known as the BiMart Annihilater. After hours on the bus eating only saltine crackers and ice chips coming home, I think he's learned his lesson now.

His next race in Tuesday: The Mazama Mud Run. I'm hoping for dry weather and shoes that don't get wrecked.