Track and Field Blogs - Scott Bauhs

So my plan was to post a new blog everyday while I was in Scotland but I got busy and the Computer lab hours were not very convienent so I let you all down... Sorry!

I guess I have a lot of catching up to do. My last post was on Thursday morning so I’ll start with Thursday afternoon.

Jon and I did a workout in a really nice flat park with short grass right next to the dorms. We did a fartlek of 4 or 5 2 minute repeats, 3 or 4 1 minute repeats and 5 or so 30 second repeats. I can’t remember the rest or the exact details but I remember feeling pretty relaxed which was the important part.

Friday was our day to relax and see the city and a lot of people took advantage of it. I was able to tour the Edinburgh castle with my parents and girlfriend early in the day and I was able to go through St. Guiles Cathedral in the afternoon. Both of these sites are like nothing you can find in the US because there really aren’t any buildings in the US that are even close to as old in the states. It was very interesting to hear the history of these places and try to put yourself in the shoes of the people that had lived in Scotland so long ago. On Thursday night Ryan and Max joined my family and me on a Ghost tour where we learned more history of Scotland particularly pertaining to Death and Torture and then toured some tunnels under the City where the tour guide showed us the “most haunted place in Edinburgh” and turned all of the lights out and screamed causing everyone’s heart to jump. The tour was fun but we had to get back to the dorms for dinner and to get some rest.

Saturday was the day that everyone got to go see the course in its entirety with everything marked and ready to go. This was the first time that I had seen the course or run on the surface. I really liked the course and from the time I had qualified until the time I had seen the course I was preparing myself for one of the hardest races of my life and I felt that the course was actually a bit easier than I had anticipated. I suppose that I would find out on Sunday whether this was true or not but after seeing the course and doing some strides I was pretty excited to run on it the next day.

On Saturday night we had the dreaded meeting the night before every race where we go over all of the details of the next day. It was pounded into us that the UK’s daylight savings time would take place that evening and that we better not be late because of it. We also got our bib numbers and other final instructions. I always hate this meeting as did some of my other teammates because I am more nervous at this meeting than I am at any other time during the trip. After the meeting we went out to dinner with all of the senior team members and coaches which was really nice. We went to an Italian restaurant downtown and the food was a welcome change from the dorm food that we had had all week.

On Sunday morning I got up around 9 to do a shakeout run with Amy and Molly if I remember correctly and we went and jogged for around 20 minutes. I’m never really sure whether I want to do a shakeout run or not and I haven’t done many but recently I’ve decided that it is really nice to remind myself that my legs work the morning before afternoon and evening races. After the jog I had a little breakfast and went back to my room to sit and wait until the race happened. The entire week went extremely fast except for this part, sitting and waiting on the day of the race took forever.

Eventually it was time to go though. We took a short bus ride to the race where we frantically changed our spikes from 3/8 inch to half inch spikes when we learned how muddy the course had become. Being a spoiled kid from California I have never raced in spikes so long before since it doesn’t really ran that much out here so I was a little bit nervous to have such weapons installed in the bottom of my feet, but it was going to be necessary for this course.

Soon enough we had been through the checking stations and were suited up and ready to start. The gun had gone off and the race had started. I was prepared for a fast start and it wasn’t any faster than I had expected. I usually like getting out relaxed in races and this one was no different. I was probably in about 90th at the 800 and gradually worked up to around 70 by the end of the first loop. The pace was quick but I was fairly comfortable and continued to move up gradually through the first few laps. Once I got into the 50’s it was harder to pass people because we were all going around the same pace so I simply made sure that I kept that pace for as long as I could. The hill was not as hard as I had worried, it was pretty steep but it was short and there was a long downhill to make up for it. I really enjoy running downhill in races and a lot of the people that I had passed I did so on the downhill.

I finished 52nd, if you are reading my blog you have probably already checked the results and know that. I am happy with 52nd and given the fitness I was in I’m not sure if I could have done much better with a different race strategy or anything like that. I wish however that I would have had just a little bit more in my legs to get moving on the last lap or two, I did a good job of maintaining my pace but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t get going any faster. I’m sure that will change as the track season goes on however and I will be able to close out my races a bit better.

I can’t remember the last time that I finished 52nd in a race. I think I might have been about that far back when I was sick for the Stanford cross-country invitational when I was a true freshman, if it wasn’t that race then I know for sure that I was 59th at the footlocker west region, but both of those races were pretty big disappointments, I am happy with how the World Championships went. I guess that goes to show how good the world is at Cross-Country and how far I have to go before I’m able to really compete for the top spots in the race. I would like to be top 10 eventually which might be asking too much but by finishing 52nd with a good race I got a bit of perspective with what I’m up against. I can’t believe what Bekele did and I can’t imagine having the talent that he has, but all I can do is keep training and see where it gets me.

After the race we went to the post race party which was a bit of a disappointment. We were expecting to get dinner and drinks but we ended up getting an appetizer of sorts and then desert. We left and went out to get fish and chips and hang out at a pub for the rest of the night. We met Euwin the drunk Scotish guy in a kilt that Max videotaped on his rant. Hopefully he will post the video on runnerspace at some point and you will all get a full appreciation for Euwin.

Soon the night was over and we all set off for a long journey home. It was an awesome trip where I got to meet so many interesting and knowledgeable people. I got to talk to shoe reps and managers and coaches and athletes from all over the world. I am still trying to sort out what all happened in my head but now I get to train for the next couple races. Stay tuned…