Upcoming Event: Cross Country versus Gans Creek Classic on September 26, 2025 at 8:00 AM
8:00 AM
Cross Country
vs Gans Creek Classic
Coach Kepler's Weekly Recap - Week 3
9/19/2006 12:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 19, 2006
After a great week of training and two tough workouts the women were looking at redeeming themselves from their overall performance from the previous weeks race. From our campus to Bozeman, Mt it is about a seven hour drive, we left Thursday after practice and drove about half way. After a good nights rest which I let the team "sleep in" a bit we started the second half of the drive in the morning. The drive took us northeast through Idaho and into West Yellowstone National Park. That has to be one of the most beautiful drives in the entire country. The mountains and the river that runs along side of the highway make for a majestic venture. However, our majestic venture was greeted with steady rain all way to Bozeman. We arrived in Bozeman, ate lunch, and then checked into the hotel. We had to wait until late afternoon to go to the pre meet due to the cross country course being on a golf course. After a short pre meet in light rain we were off to Johnny Carino's Country Italian restaurant for dinner (along with all the other teams, or so it seemed). JC's is one of the team's favorite establishments so dinner was nice. After dinner it was back to the hotel for a team meeting before getting a good night sleep. I talked about running with more passion and purpose than we had a week ago. I asked our team to be a little tougher and not so nice. Cross country is a rugged sport and requires a little more "attitude" than I thought we had displayed last week. With a young team this is not that unusual and reminders are always a step in the right direction. With those ideas in mind and a race plan that included our 2-5 runners staying together and running a more conservative first mile it was time to get some rest.
We woke up to a steady mist and snow on the surrounding mountains. Had we been about 200ft higher we would have been running in the snow. It was a nippy 42 degrees at race time, but the mist had ceased for the start. At 800 meters we were right where we were supposed to be in all positions and setting up the race nicely. Through the mile everyone looked relaxed and ready to start racing, and that's exactly what they did. Our number one (Becky) was moving up towards the top ten and our 2-5 were all together and steadily picking up the pace. Throughout the first two miles everyone had moved up at least 5-10 positions and were still on the move. Our 2-5 pack was breaking up, but still fairly close. As we finished it was apparent that everyone in our line up had run very well (and much better than a week ago). Even though we were fifth in the team standings our team had combined to run 2:25 faster than we did a year ago on the same course. Our 1-5 finishing times were only 1:08 apart, which was much better than our 2+ minute spread a week ago. We made a huge amount of progress and ran with a confidence that I haven't seen all year. It was great to see such a young group of athletes believe in themselves and fight for every position.
After a quick shower and lunch we were back on the road headed for home. We stopped in West Yellowstone for a couple of team photos (see the photo gallery). It was even more scenic on the way home as we drove through rain and snow for portions of the drive. Although it's a little early for snow in my book, it's great to have Fall in full bloom. It's hard to beat the chill and crispness associated with a sunny Fall morning as you prepare to run and coach a cross country race.
The upcoming week will be a big training week and we have some great workouts planned. I'll be back following our next competition (Fri. Sept. 29th) which is our home meet (Utah Fall Twilight) at Rose Park Golf Course here in Salt Lake. The women will run their first 6K race of the season at 5:30pm. The men's 8K race will follow at 6:15pm. Teams scheduled to compete are U of Nevada (women), Air Force, UVSC, BYU, Weber State, Westminster, and our women. Hope to see you all there!
Kyle Kepler Head Women's Track & Field/Cross Country Coach University of Utah (801) 585-6858 w (801) 585-6453 fax Go Utes!!!
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