Post Race Comments From Minnesotans Who Ran the .US National Road Race Championship 12

By Sam Rush

Based upon everyone's interviews this was a fast race, a challenging course and well organized. Below are the thoughts and some of the experiences the runners had race day.

Mike Reneau

 "I was out the back (of the pack) in about two miles, I did not have the fitness level. It was a great experience, course and would definitely come back." At one point Mike was in 20th place, but he was able to move his way up to finish 15th. Most of the people he passed he said were the guys who went out too fast.

In response to the question, "Do you ever notice your surroundings, since the course had a number of landmarks on it?" Mike said that he has gotten older and more experienced he no longer studies the course like he used to do. In the past he would meticulously go over every detail including determining all the tangents. Now he finds it nice sometimes to go out and not stress about every detail.

Joe Moore

 "Fast" was Joe Moore's initial impression of the race. "Evenly paced, but fast for me," was his second response. He started in the pack at the beginning but drifted off the main pack after about 5K making some surges to hang on or stay on the back. The pack remained together until about four miles when it started to splinter. As Joe recollects he was at about five to five-and-a half miles in when he heard a fan yell to the runner next to him that he was in 10th place making Joe 11th. "11th sucks, they give money to 10th," Joe thought and made a hard move to pass. From then on, "I ran scared" he explained. He wanted to make sure it did not come down to a kick.

To see Joe's take on Nick Arciniaga's representation of the Rebel Alliance at the race click the video below. Did this inspire Joe? Did he find his own inner Jedi?

Ben Sathre

"It was not my day" explained Ben. "I have been running for seven weeks, not doing anything fast just LT runs at 5:25-5:30 (minute per mile) pace." That would explain why dropping a 4:45 first mile felt really hard. The next few miles he tried to push through it telling himself,"Hang on, just get through this rough patch." At three miles his body said no but he continued to push as much as his body would allow. A valiant effort of the mind trying to overcome the body.

Meghan Peyton

"I went out pretty fast running the first mile in 5:15, having run a marathon 6 weeks ago it was the fastest mile I have done in a while." Meghan took Molly's and Shalane's fast start in stride and stuck to her plan despite the fast first mile. Her plan was to stay with the next pack and finish as high as she could. Early in the race Meghan was 12th and slowly moved up to 11th by 10k before closing hard to finish in 9th.bMeghan will now take two weeks off skipping the USATF National Club XC Championships, the second weekend of December, and get ready for 2014.

Kelly Brinkman

"I was really happy with where I placed. I had fairly low expectations because the last couple months have not been great for my training. . .my goal was a 42 minute race, which is around 5:40 pace, and would be towards the back of the pack." As she expected, Kelly was strung off the back of the pack and ran most of the race race on her own finishing 18th.

She is now preparing to run the Club XC Championships with her new team Twin Cities Track Club. After that she will hit the USA Running Circuit to try to improve upon her tied for 28th place finish and get another invitation to the .US National Road Racing Championships.