Anders rocks all the ladies ...

Today was the first 3k test of the fall up at Danehey, and all things considered, I'd say it went well. The weather today was beautiful, in the low 70s, sunny, very little wind - perfect track conditions. Turnout was decent - CNabes was out with a foot injury so it was just Anders and myself holding it down for the guys. For the ladies we had Schulzy, Jenn, Katie, and Meri. Tannis showed but didn't race.

After doing my best Cancellara impression from Robinson Hall to the park, I took off for a [too] short warm up while the ladies got underway with their run. There was a high school girls' soccer game going on at the same time, but our girls seemed to have no problem running their races.

Anders and I got started shortly after the girls finished (Schulzy took it over Jenn, then Mer, then Katie) and quickly ran into some problems. We went out fast (like 1:09), too fast for me, so I scaled it back to a more manageable (and right on target) 1:20. A couple laps in Anders nearly got hit by an errant kick, but he soldiered on. Maybe a lap later, right in front of the benches, officials, and spectators, Anders and one of the girls collided as she was chasing a ball out of bounds.

This was where things started to deteriorate. Next time around we got yelled at by one of the coaches to run on the outside of the track (in a 3k, we thought, are they serious? do they not know who we are?). Then the refs got into it, forcing me exchange some less-than-understanding words with the head official as I was finishing up a lap. Next time around a park official tried to physically block my path, forcing me to dodge him yelling something about being unable to stop. Post-race Anders and I conferred and agreed conditions were less than ideal. He took me by probably 10-15 seconds - I ran a 10:05, so he logged something in the 9:50s or lower. After clearing things up with the refs and the dude who tried to end my test early, we cleared out. Leave it to Cambridge to make even a 3k interesting.

-- O