Thoughts on CIS and our last few days prior to NAIA's

This past Saturday saw the all of the Canadian schools, save us and SFU compete in the CIS Cross Country Championship, for those of you who don't know that would be the Canadian University Championship. Coincidentally we happened to be a workout the same time the race was going on. For the past 4 years, my routine on this day has been quite similar; wake up in the morning, check for updates about the race, get change then spend the whole time in transportation to practice on the social media outlets looking for any sort of updates I can find. Following that I'll be checking my phone throughout practice for any other updates about the races, this usually happens after warmup, and after the intervals before cool down starts. Unfortunately, we don't get to race the the other Canadian teams other than UVIC, whom may we race once or twice a season, and it's definitely not when our teams are both fit for Championship season. I know for me and some of the guys on the team it really interesting to see how the rest of the Canadian runners do, many of the guys running at CIS are teammates from back home, or old high school rivals. I would say the NAIA is much deeper than the CIS and we are thankful for the outdoor track season, however I know I would much rather compete against Canada's best university runners during the fall. More pride is taken being a Canadian and competing against the best from Canada. Though we may not get to run against the university masses, most of the strongest will make there way out to our home course at Jericho Beach, for the Canadian Cross Country Championships; for us UBC boys we will get a chance to mix it up with Canada's best, I think that we'll be turning a few head. The meet goes off on the 24th of November, and I encourage everyone who is reading this and not racing to come cheer on Canada's best, the race even feature some Olympians from the past summer.

That being said, we have one big meet to focus on before the Canadian Championships. The final UBC team race of the 2012 season will be the NAIA Championships, held in Vancouver, Washington. The race is scheduled one week prior to the Jericho, November 17th, the men go off at 11:45am with the women's team racing just prior to that at 10:30am.

The past week has seen us back from conference and the teams putting the last few miles in the legs before we begin our taper into these last two Championship races. Our the last few workouts have been pretty standard for us leading up to races, miles in the mud last Tuesday, some long repeats in the mud at Jericho on Saturday, and last night some 800's in the mud. Lots of mud, however everybody seems to be coming in to form when it matters most. Hopefully this training in the mud will pay off in Washington, as well all know that Jericho will be one giant puddle. The course in Washington has the potential to be quite muddy, and with the way the forecast looks, mud is definitely on the menu. Compared to most schools, who race on fast course all season, we have been banging around in the mud on Tuesday's and Saturday's for some time now, so I think its safe to say the team knows how to handle it. Throw it the cold temperature and the race looks to resemble a much more Canadian form of cross country.

Both teams are ranked in the top 5, the men being 5th and women holding the number 1 ranking. Not to put pressure on the women's team but they should feel good about their chances, especially after the regional meet where they put 6 women before San Marcos completed their team score. As long as the get after it and run hard Saturday the results will come. For the men the road to the podium looks a bit tougher. All top 5 teams are quite strong  and on any given day the team that races the best could take the title. The UBC men's team is deep, with the top 5 having changed several times through out the season and the pack usually having a small spread. The team is composed with veterans, Tim Huebsch and Luc Bruchet having run at the NAIA championships a combined 5 times prior to this year. Being the two Seniors on the team, they know more or less what is expected of them and how the races often play out. The rest of the team is made of runners with less NAIA experience, however many of them have ran at other big meets, they should be able to handle the pressure. On race day, the team will have to make sure to mark out any blue San Marcos jerseys and red South Oregon in the race and do their best to beat them to the line. With the top team being very close, the race should come down to a small point spread.

 Hopefully everybody on the team does not chase individual glory, we cannot afford to have anyone blow up. Each member of the team needs to realize they are running for the friend and training partner beside them. This is our shot for team title and everyone on the team matters.