Delaware XC Champs
Slightly different course than the past years, but similarly hard - probably a little hillier, and a little less rugged/rooty, as they replaced the only single track trail segment with a hill in a field.
I ran a few seconds faster than
last year which is good, though not nearly as good as
3 years ago...
Like last year, I got scalped by the top 2 women. Not that I have a problem with that. When the field is moderately large or strong, as it is with this race's $200 prize for 1st woman, that often happens.
However, what I wasn't so happy about was that the top woman in the race - the Delaware state cross-country champion, was 11. Yes, F11. 20:25 on a course than was about 10% slower than a road course. Which puts her at close a ~90% age/gender/course graded result. Not often I race a world class athlete... And an 11 year old to boot.
Had I known her time in advance however (there were different heats and I had missed the women's finish), I wonder if I could've pulled out the extra 6 seconds...
And on the knee - hasn't really hurt much in running since last weekend, and it survived this race (and the next 22 hours so far) w/o major issue, so I think we're good to call this fixed.