Happy Days to Kendall Hills XC Meet

My brother Jeff and I drove to the Happy Days Visitor Center around the middle of the day and started our run by heading up to the ledges on our way to the Kendall Hills area. Today was my first run since the YUT-C 50K last Saturday and I must say that I felt pretty good. My legs still had some tiredness but nothing out of the ordinary. As we followed the trail we made our way past the Ice Box Cave and then up to the overlook.

As we continued past Kendall Lake we could hear music in the distance. I thought maybe it was from the Blossom Music Center or something, but as we neared the open fields of Kendall Hills we could tell that there was a large cross country meet taking place, with tents set up from each high school. I then remembered Jim telling me awhile ago that his son Heath (who goes to Lakeview) was running in this meet so we went up to where everyone was to check it out.

Just as we got to the top of the hill another race was starting so I started taking video of it and noticed that Heath and his Lakeview team were in this race. Great timing! Results from the race should be posted here - www.baumspage.com/cc/woodridge/index.htm

Race Start

Race leaders pass by the first mile in under 5 minutes

Heath (in blue) passes by the first mile in 5:17

Heath rounding the turn on his last mile

The winner of the race from Woodridge finishing in 17:00

Heath finishing in 18:37

So, after Jeff and I did a few hill repeats we left the XC meet and headed back the way we came to Happy Days when all of a sudden this mini van makes a turn into the Kendall Lake parking lot by us and lays on the horn. My first thought was "Why the hell is this guy honking his horn? We're not even in his lane." Just as I was about to yell at this person the car window lowered and we saw that it was Heath's dad Jim smiling at us. We were surprised to see him because he was coming from his other son's soccer match and he didn't know if he would be here in time to watch Heath run. Jim said that he was planning on running at least 2 hours so he joined my brother and I and ran with us back to Happy Days.

On the way back we pushed the pace some.. probably because we were all pumped up from watching the boys XC race. It felt good to cruise over all the rocks on such a nice day (sunny, cool air, low 70s) and fly downhill on our way back. Jeff and I ended up finishing with 7.5 quality miles... And I finally signed up for the Columbus Marathon last night, which I am running with my brother and sister on Oct. 21st, so I am looking forward to it!