Prospecting

Well there we are then, my first American race is over and done with. It didn’t go as I hoped, but I can live with that. It’s not the first bad race that I’ve had, and I’m sure that it won’t be the last. As an experience it was pretty unique, and will live long in the memory. As I warmed up in the 30-degree heat, I couldn’t help but cast my mind back to those countless cross-country races that I’ve run since I was a young ‘un. The freezing cold, the wet, the mud – the great staples of England’s toughest, craziest sport. Yet here I was, 5k of hard baked mud ahead of me and the golden sun blazing down on my head, sweating like Donald Trump in a tax office. Everything about the race felt very alien to me - even the drive there! Macpherson College (the hosts) were only a half hour drive away, but to get to it we passed through some kind of oil field. I counted dozens of oil pumps, which I think were prospecting for underground reserves. It was pretty surreal, for some reason I never imagined that I'd see oil prospectors anywhere outside of the Middle East. 

Pre - race Team Talk

Back to the race - it was very exciting in spite of the conditions, and I think I probably got a little too excited. I’m not particularly known for my fast starts; in fact, I’d probably say that I was sub-par. You wouldn’t have believed this if you saw me bounding down the starting straight, like a lion chasing an antelope. Admittedly, it probably looked more like a slightly dozy giraffe chasing a tumbleweed, but you get the picture. Anyway, things started to go downhill from about a mile in. I wasn’t feeling great, but if I’d paced it better then it would have probably have been okay. The second half of the race was a real struggle, and the heat was pretty awful. I finished 14^th, having been 6^th at the mile point, in a time of around 18 minutes. I was very disappointed naturally, especially since I’d ran 17.20 in even hotter conditions in a tempo run on Thursday afternoon. However, over the last few days I’ve come to take a more philosophical view. The course hasn’t been a historically fast one, and I’ve been racing cross country in the English winter my entire life. The transition to summer in Kansas was never going to be a smooth one. It was bad, but it wasn’t that bad, I guess. Things can only get better from here. Added to this, the team performances from both the men and the women exceeded all expectations. This was Bethel Colleges first competitive appearance since 2014. Coach has done an incredible job getting everyone into shape over the last month – the team that I met when I arrived is barely recognizable to the one I lined up with on Saturday. We have a long way too go, but we’ve made massive strides already. I’ve written a piece on the new team for the Collegiate, which is the College newspaper, which will be publishing next week.

New Hokas! Courtesy of the Athletics Department :)

Onto lighter matters, I’m beginning to wonder whether I should ask Bethel to give me a scholarship in Disc Golf. That would probably be a step to far, but I’m actually not that bad. Me and Isaiah & co have made golfing a regular habit in the evenings. Between 7 – 7.30 are the prime conditions, because it’s a bit cooler and there’s still plenty of light. We usually get around a nine-hole course in half an hour. We’ll usually play on the College circuit, or on the larger park circuit about a mile away. Today (Sunday) we headed into Wichita to play on a proper 18-hole course, which was pretty awesome. 

The training has been going pretty well overall, and I was pretty confident I’d get in the top – 10 before the Macpherson meet. The locals seem to think that this heat isn’t going to last much longer, which is a relief. I figure the cooler it gets, the better I’ll be. The first signs of change are starting to appear. It’s starting to get pretty windy at times, which is a real pain whilst playing disc golf, and I’m told that this heralds the start of autumn. We’ve also had rain in the night, and there’s some cold weather forecasted on the horizon. The sooner the better is what I say, though I’m sure that I’ll regret those words when I’m waking up in pitch black and setting off for runs in the middle of a tornado.

You may remember me commenting on the men's running attire in 
a previous instalment. Clearly it was bugging Coach as well - he got 
the girls to dress the same as the boys for Friday's session this week,
just to show them how stupid they all looked.  

I have been following the endeavours of our young athletes very keenly from across the water. There's been some brilliant performances in spite of the limited amount of competition that the club has been able to access, and it looks like everyone has really seized their opportunities when they have come along. Obviously there's going to be some disappointment (as with myself) and some rustiness, but that's bound to happen given how few races we've all participated in over the last 5 months or so. You'll just have to stay focused, listen to your coaches and get yourself in form for upcoming races. I know that both myself and Emily are really excited to watch the Wirral Endurance Programme add some more silverware to its (already impressive) trophy cabinet over the coming months!