NXN - Nike Cross Country Nationals 2011

This past weekend I flew out to Portland, OR, the home of Nike, for their annual cross country national championship race. NXN 2011 was quite a trip. Portland is one of the coolest towns I've been to in quite a while, and the races were incredible. We brought our SE Regional Champion girls team as well as 1 boy runner - the best in the state of DE and 6th fastest runner in the SE Regional race.

NXN takes place at a horse racetrack called Portland Meadows. Mostly because of the time of year and geographical location it's wet, muddy, and slow. It's a course that levels the playing field a bit. There are hay bails to jump over (twice) and "whoop-d-doos" (small man-made rolling hills) to run over (twice also).

It was Tatnall's 6th trip to the big show, and there were high expectations. However, the number one seeded team out of NY hasn't been beaten in their six straight trips to NXN, so we weren't the favorites.

The boys race was first. It was incredible to see the amount of talent on the starting line. And, some of the best individual runners weren't even there. NXN is a team race. Individual qualifiers are put on a regional team, which can't place in the national competition. Our lone boy representative raced as the SE Regional Team. The best individual boys will race this coming Saturday at the Footlocker Invitational. Anyway, the race went off at 10:05. The start is FAST! There is about a 300m stretch before the first turn, and everyone knows you have to put yourself in a decent position if you want to be able to move through the field at all. A couple guys decided to take it out very hard and pull away from the pack before the first mile. I think the leaders hit around 4:40. By the 1.5 mile mark a lone runner who made his way out early started to fade back and a boy from Illinois blew by him. I thought he too was going too hard too early. However, some other spectators around me informed me that he hasn't lost a race all season, and he was ranked #2 in the country. He pulled far out in front by the 2 mile mark and didn't even look back. He won the race (against the best runners in the country!) by 30 seconds and set a course record of 15:03. Our boy placed #63 overall. A team from the N. Jersey shore brought home the team title - my uncle's alma mater actually.

The girls hit the line at 11:35, racing as Wilmington XC. They got out early with our top runner in a great position to strike. Once again a couple runners went out hard and died off before the 2 mile mark. The front pack was still closely packed coming through 2 miles. In the last 800m it was our #1 and a sophomore from Simi Valley, CA. The young girl from the sunshine state pulled away. 4 seconds later our star senior crossed the line. An amazing finish to her senior xc season. Our number 2 finished in the top 25 as well. The aforementioned girls team from NY remained unbeaten. Second place went to another team from NY, and we took 3rd....in the country. Not too bad.

An amazing weekend. And I got to see/experience an awesome city - Portland. Amazing job, girls (and Sam)!

So now cross country is over. I'll be giving the running legs a break for a little while. It's also finals week at Villanova, Maddy's bday Saturday (!), and there's a pending "athletic pubalgia" surgery before Christmas.

Check back soon!
Happy training!