Track and Field Blogs - Ryan Warrenburg

The cross country weather as arrived here in Blowing Rock, at least for now. Along with the weather came my first cross country race of the year, or perhaps it was the other way around.

But first, last weekend Jon and I ran a race in Erwin TN, home of the Apple Fest 4 miler. It was a road race and was the true definition of a rust buster. It is such a small, local race but every year there is some serious competition that shows up for the little prize money the race offers. This year it was a group of Kenyans up from Atlanta, and we got schooled by a couple of them. I was 4th, running 19:27 for four miles, less than stellar, and Jon was 3rd in 19:05. The two guys up front ran 18:40 and 18:44. That 4:50 pace that we ran was the longest sustained running we have done at that pace, and I just wasn't used to it. We hit the first mile, downhill and I thought it was 10 seconds faster than it was. But not all was lost, before leaving we did make a stop at the Apple Festival and pick up some apple pies and a sweet pumpkin roll cake thingy.

This past weekend Jon and I took to the cross country course here at Appalachian State. Texas was in town staying at ZAP and so we knew it would be a good race. There were actually a couple of other good individuals in the largest field ever assembled at the State Farm Fields in Boone. Nobody seemed to interested to take the pace so Jon and I took to the front right away. We hit the mile in 4:46 and then by two miles in 9:30 things had begun to really thin out. We hit mile 3 in 14:27 and had a bit of a gap on the next couple of guys. We continued to press, hitting four miles in 19:17, but the guys behind us were running tough and the gap hadn't really grown much since the big hill just before the 3 mile mark.

After the four mile mark I continued to push from the front and Jon had started to fade a bit. I was able to come home with the win in 23:59, just ahead of Erik Stanley of Texas. Jon finished up 4th in 24:11. I was happy with the effort, I'm not really sure how I can run 10 seconds faster through four miles than I did for four miles on the roads last weekend, but I'll take it. After the four miler last weekend I have been feeling much better in training and in the XC race. This was my first down week so maybe the day off Monday really helped get my legs under me. Even without a good race I would have been happy with the way things have been going in training, and I am looking forward to continuing to put in some good work this fall.

On a completely different note, my girlfriend Jenna and I went to a concert in Charlotte this week for her birthday. She is a really big Chevelle fan, and they were playing at this really neat venue called Amos's Southend. It is just this big warehouse with bars set up around the edge, a good, intimate place to see a show. So the band that came on first was Fair to Midland, I have never heard of them and didn't know what to expect. Jenna checked them out online, but her impression was far from reality. These guys were so heavy it was frightening. I stood there surrounded by some serious metal heads, and of course Jenna wants to get as close as possible to the stage. The lead singer had this death scream where he pointed to the crowd and his eyes bugged out, it felt like he was casting some kind of evil death metal spell on me, I didn't like it. He would then follow this up with pouring water all over himself and spinning his body, arms flailing, like a complete madman. I still have no idea how these guys didn't smash into each other in the utter chaos going on up there.

Jenna and I stood there looking at each other with this half humored half petrified "what have we gotten ourselves into" look. But it turned out all right, they were the warm-up act so the crowd didn't get too roudy. Then Chevelle came out and the mosh pit started. Somehow whenever I go to concerts with mosh pits I end up right by them. We were standing on the edge of it the entire show. The only thing I hate about them is while its going on you can't really pay attention to the music for fear of getting your skull whacked. So I'm sitting there crouched like a defensive lineman, and the one second I'm not paying attention I turn around just in time to see the back of Jenna's head come crashing into my face.

No worries though, aside from a sore chin and head, we are fine. I'm sure I can't say the same for the guy that came out everytime wallowing in pain, too drunk to figure out he should not go back in there and fling his body around again. (His girlfriend finally took him away.) It turned out to be a great show, those guys rock pretty hard, and as long as you don't mind losing your hearing for a day or so I would recommend it.

As always, if anyone has any thing they would like to hear about ZAP, anything running related, or otherwise, let me know.

P.S.
If you think I'm a huge pansy and decide to listen to Fair to Midland, they sound much, much more hardcore in concert than they do in the studio. And I probably am a pansy.