I was the guy racing Richard Collier for 60th place. It was the ideal way to end a race, with a sprint to the finish against the person who had been 50 feet ahead of me for the last kilometer.

I have no idea what the finish line is like for people who are doing 8k in under 30 minutes, but I hope it was as exciting as what I felt. It felt like I was nearing the end of an Olympic trial, with a small crowd of people cheering (for Richard). It was a blast. It was my first cross country, and my fourth race ever.

The race started quietly enough for me. I was walking and fiddling with my MP3 player and I ended up at the back of the pack by the time I looked up. By the time I crested that first short hill the frontrunners were already snaking up the other side of the creek. Which was fine, but I didn't want to get lapped. The hardest part about starting at the back is the difficulty of passing people on those single path trails. The good part is I wasn't going to pass very many.

The weather was pleasant. I arrived far too early and ran for maybe 15 minutes to warm up before the race. I have to remember to do that. Warm up, remove warm up clothes, don't drink too much water, stretch a little, start slow. I didn't have spikes on, but the course didn't really require them. It was snowy in places, but not really icy anywhere.

A couple of times before the first downhill I had to hop off the trail to pass someone, and every time I did I was worried that my foot would end up in a rut or a gopher hole or land weird on a rock. There were a bunch of us that reached the trail beside Beddington at the same time and the trail seemed like a bunch of wheel ruts in soft dirt overgrown with some grass. I went pretty slow. After this wobbly bit we turned right and headed for the first downhill. We crossed a small field of long grass and the trail vanished for a while. Here we were pretty shocked to find the lady in the yellow jacket sitting on the grass holding her ankle up. Somebody was talking to her, so I didn't stop to see if she needed help. Later, I felt I should have anyway.

We all tumbled down the first downhill towards the creek. "Tumbled" is probably the wrong word, but it didn't feel like a graceful descent. Going back up was slower, since no-one in front of me was going fast up the hill. Which was fine by me. We crossed the bridge on the creek, waved to Kathy with the camera, and sidled up the hill. A couple times I was looking too far ahead and my foot nearly landed off the path. Falling down the hill would have been a great introduction to cross country! We clogged up here again so I went off the path to pass a couple people but after seeing someone with a twisted ankle earlier I got back on the path real quick. Down a dirt path to the creek again, and then back up.

When I reached the finish line for the first lap I noted my time at an incredible 20 minutes. I was hoping to do the 8k in under an hour, so I figured I had 40 minutes to lounge around, so I went to where my water bottle was stashed, ate some cashews and raisins, and about a minute passed before I was back on the course.

I had some more people to pass again, and I felt pretty good about my time and how I felt so far and it was nice to have half the race done. I charged past some people, since I'd had a minute of rest, and soon I ended up off the path looking for the next flag. I couldn't figure it out, I should have paid more attention in the first lap, so I waited for the next group of runners, and followed them until I could sort it out.

Then I passed them again. That's gratitude for ya. I found going up and down the hills a lot faster this second time because I wasn't waiting for anyone, but I must have walked half of the uphill anyway. The rest of the second lap was a lot quieter with fewer people in front of me. By this time, about 20 people had finished the race already. But I thought it would still be nice to be under 60 minutes, and nicer still to have a faster second lap.

Richard showed up ahead of me with maybe a kilometer to go. He was pretty far away and I was making very little ground trying to catch him. He opened it up on a grassy trail and I lost some distance from him. I caught him again going up a short hill and then he took off from me across the flats. His pace was just generally faster than mine, so I tried giving it a little more and kept up. Near the last corner there was a group of three people who saw Richard and started cheering him on. I rounded the corner and decided to try and overtake him, since I had a little kick left. I launched beside him into the grass on his left and Richard accelerated! I thought he was going fast enough, but he just poured it on. My reaction was to increase speed and I swear Richard laughed and easily caught up. I could hear people yelling Richard's name and then he went even faster!

I'm not sure how I finished in front of him. It was a hilarious exhilirating ending. Afterwards he said he was surprised I had a kick left in me. I was surprised how fast he was going at the end. Although maybe, thinking about it now, it might not have looked as fast as it felt. It felt like we were hurtling. Pell-mell. The Flash vs Superman kinda fast.

I was thinking that every person should have that kind of ending, whether it's for 1st or 60th place. It was nice to finish under an hour, it was great to even finish the 8k, but that ending... I'll be thinking about it for a long time. Thanks, Richard.

The potluck lunch afterwards was great. You people make such nice soups! (I hope to make a nice soup one day too.) I ended up sitting across from the woman with the twisted ankle. And beside the guy from Canmore. We talked about half marathons and marathons and running in the mountains. It was a nice conclusion to the cross country race.