Oct. 30, 2008

My favorite time of year has come again. Even with Halloween costumes and fantasy basketball teams on everybody's minds, nothing makes the fall more exciting that Cross Country Championship racing. Only two days from now our Don distance runners will flood the course with a sea of black.

Over the span of a cross country season, you spend your weekends racing against hundreds of nameless athletes, but all that changes at the WCC Championships. At the conference meet, a paltry 56 athletes toe the line and, for the most part, you know every one of them. Instead of having to navigate your way through a gigantic crowd of runners during a race, at Conference there is no hiding from the competition. It can be a big question if someone can make the adjustment from running in a big field to competing against such a small number, but I feel ver confident in the team we are fielding.

We'll be relying on our freshman duo of Gambi and Jeremy to put themselves up in front and set the tone for our team. They've shown that they can compete with the top guys from LMU and Santa Clara, which is exactly what they'll need to do. Our next five guys will all have similar responsibilities. Jesus, Ravi, Colin, Devin, and Tyler have been training really well and I expect them to match up very favorably with the guys in the middle of the race. They just need to work together and beat as many people as possible. The only thing I'm truly sure of is that this is going to be a tight finish. We've had a few close battles with LMU and Santa Clara this year and, while this weekend is sure to offer a bit of the same, I feel confident that our guys can come out ahead of those two and bring back a second place finish.

I'll be down at Crystal Springs on Saturday, cheering for my boys, hoping they represent the Green and Gold, and enjoying my favorite time of the year.