With summer break rapidly coming to a close and the BioFreeze SF Marathon (or half marathon, anyway) behind me, so begins the most favorite time of year for many a runner: cross-country! I’m still relatively new to the XC world — the Santa Cruz Challenge race in ‘17 was my first go at this type of running, ever — but man, it’s fun. It’s really, really, hard, yet really, really fun. 

Saturday was the PA-USATF XC (alphabet soup) series opener down in Santa Cruz, as has been the case for the past couple years, and I was looking forward to toeing the line not because I’m in any real racing shape to speak of but because XC is all about team and camaraderie. At least in these parts, XC races are segregated into open women’s, masters men, and open men fields, and what that (practically) means is that my male teammates can cheer for their lady teammates when we run and in return, we for them.

On paper, that sounds a lot less meaningful than it is in reality. Rarely am I ever afforded the opportunity to really support my teammates in races that I’m running alongside them, but XC is one of those rare instances in the racing world where I can. If you run, you know how much it means to have people on the sidelines cheering for you who really “get” what you’re experiencing mid-race. Add to that the fact that they’re your teammates, and well, at the risk of sounding silly, it’s really pretty special.

Besides the cheering aspect — which is a lot of fun, in and of itself — the scoring dynamic in XC works in such a way that emphasizes strategy and finish placement much more than finishing time. In other words, it doesn’t matter if I finish many minutes behind the first overall female finisher or the first female finisher on my team; all of our finish placements help to determine how many points our team (and we, as individuals) earn. 

Perhaps that’s more XC scoring tedium than you came here for today, but suffice it to say that XC is equal parts unpredictable, fun, really tough, and very much a team endeavor. Everyone’s run matters.

Saturday’s XC course at the University of California-Santa Cruz (UCSC) campus was the same as it was when I ran this event the past two years, and it definitely hasn’t gotten any easier. There’s a lot of steep up and down action crammed into those four miles! In 2017, I did the race (and XC, in general) for the first time and had no idea what to expect; in 2018, I was four weeks post-racing at SF, wherein I felt like I had been hit by a truck, and at the XC meet, I paced like a fool and death-marched my way back home on the second lap of the 2-mile course. 

This time around, my singular goal was to not pace like an idiot and finish the thing with at least a modicum of self-respect. Plus, I wanted to help field a full women’s team. (Spoiler: success on all accounts, so YAY to that). 

Somewhat hilariously, after three consecutive days of 100+ temps in SJ, the UCSC campus greeted us with an abundance of fog, 50-60 degree temps, and incessant misty-rain basically the entire time we were there. (My feet were pruney for hours after I got home and showered). It made for a beautiful morning, though, and rather perfect running weather in my estimation. 

Anyway, the tl;dr version of my season opener XC race on Saturday was that while my time was a bit slower than last year’s, I negative split the race by about 4-5 seconds, held my place or moved up a few spots over the second lap, and all things considered, felt pretty strong. After fun-running the half at SF in late July, I’ve slowly been building mileage volume again, and as my kids have resumed school, my running routine has returned, too. I haven’t done a single workout since returning to home in SJ in late July — everything is easy, GA, or hilly/on trails — so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of speed on Saturday. It’ll come.

By the day’s end, I posted over 10 miles, all of them with my teammates, and honestly, I just felt jazzed to be out there and to be doing this type of running right now. That’s always been the joy and beauty of running, in my opinion: any surface, any distance, any speed… there really is something for everyone. Right now, this feels right.  

One of my goals for this quarter is to run as much of the PA-USATF XC series as possible, given my weekend constraints throughout the season (read: swim meets … lots of swim meets), and to use this type of running to augment 50k training (possibly). Ah, yes, on that note: I’ll be deferring CIM because it conflicts with a local Junior Olympics (JO) swim meet. It’s not the end of the world, as I’m pretty sure CIM isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon; it just calls for a bit of a pivot in my training. It’s all good. It’s a no-brainer that I want to be there for my eldest (and at an event for which she has to qualify).  

This is the point in my race recap where I’ll again implore local readers to check out some of the races on the PA-USATF XC schedule. They’re all over northern California — from Santa Rosa, to Vacaville, SF, and all the way south to Santa Cruz — and I’ve always enjoyed myself at every race I’ve run. Your finishing time matters less than you think (see my notes above), and the environment is really laid back (yet competitive), encouraging, and just good ol’ fashioned fun. You don’t have to be on a team to participate (but if you’re looking for a team, hi!), and as far as races go in the Bay Area, XC ones are some of the most inexpensive/no-frills (but have I said how fun they are yet?!) options around. It’s you versus the land: running in its most primal context. Plus, Wolfpack will be hosting the Golden Gate Open at SF on Sunday, September 8th, and I’d love to see you there. 🙂 

If you’re on the fence about jumping in some XC races in your area this fall, take this post as your sign, and come thank me later.