BIG News

Alright, so this is big. No, scratch that, it's BIGGER than big. It's huge.

A little buildup. So you all know that I went out to SD this weekend, and I was really pumped for the race. Well, due to circumstances that I probably could have controlled, although it would have been difficult, I didn't prepare as well for the race as I could have. And certainly I don't go into races in February in tip-top shape. I was disappointed because I desperately wanted a great race in San Diego. It's not everyday you get to travel to a cool place for as big of a race as that one. After the race I said to myself "man, you shouldn't have run this, you should have just watched," but let's be honest, I don't mind getting stomped. In fact, a few mintues later I was looking forward to next year. I wasn't sure how early they announce next year's location, but I figured if it was a cool place, or not too bad of a trip, I would look to do it. And, since I'll probably do Boston Marathon in 2009, I'll reverse my training so that I'm coming into shape in February and try and run better than this year. Well you can imagine my surprise and excitement when today I found out where they are allegedly holding this race next year:

2009 USA Cross Country Championships

Folks, this is in our backyard! I fully expect each and every one of us to compete in this event. I cannot stress its importance. While I'm still surprised, quite frankly, that they would even have found this park on a map, and certainly the venue is no Van Cortlandt Park, or Colorado, or San Diego, it's really cool that it's so close. That means no flying, no hotels - just a good night's sleep at home prior to a 2 pm start time for open men.

And while there were obviously quite a few locals racing in the San Diego edition, I can't help but think that we here are more competitive, and that between HoCo, Pacers, Montgomery County and Falls Rd/TWSS we will help this race be a huge success. Not in terms of competition, necessarily - although Kip, Dave and Kyle could probably do pretty well - but that we'll bring the racers and the crowd attendance this meet deserves.

No date yet, but expect it to be around the same time, so maybe February 14th or February 21st. I'm wondering where this park is, as I've never heard of it, but Doug Ripley and Tom Stott have raced in Derwood, I think, so it's got to be there. It will probably be more of a true cross-country course, which will be cool, but over a 2k loop you can't really get that cross-countryish.

As you can tell I'm really excited. We can enter a team. And while we're on that subject, if this is the case, then we definitely should consider going to Washington (State) in December for USA Club XC Nationals in preparation.