An extraordinary day of running

...February 10, 2007: USA Cross Country Nationals Championship races.
...Masters men & women 8k races, Junior women 6k, Junior men 8k, Open women 8k, Open men 12k.
...A serpentine 2k loop around a golf course in Boulder, snow-lined grass and dirt track with one small ditch jump and one big ditch jump (Jonesy's surprise, named after Steve Jones), tons of mud head to toe on runners, splattering spectators, sidelining lead vehicles.
...Fantastic spectator viewing options - and an estimated 10,000 spectators dashing about in the mud and snow to watch the action .
...The best of the best of USA's runners vying for spots on the World Cross Country Team going head to head, stride for stride, mud splat for mud splat.

Put it all together and you have a spectacular race.

I was very proud (and very lucky) to be a tiny volunteer cog in this extraordinary event...

• to witness a 15 year old win the Junior girls' race by 14 seconds,
  
• to cheer for not one, not two, but 5 over-80 Boulder Road Runners cruised the course (and another 9 70+ year olds).
  
• to see first-hand what the announcer described as "perfect form" as Deena Kastor stretched it out with each lap of the course to win by 61 seconds over 3000 meter American record holder Shalane Flanagan
• to hear the roar of the crowd as hometown boy, CU grad and Olympian Alan Culpepper moved up through the pack, eventually overtaking Adam Goucher, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Jorge Torres to lead the four-man former-CU-runners sweep at the finish.
  

If you have a chance to watch the TV coverage of this fantastic set of races, do! (ESPN2 was covering the races, and the documentary, Showdown, which is following five of today's runners, will have footage from the race.) The race website (www.boulder2007.com/) also offers some great info.
And, if ever in the future you have the opportunity to participate in a National XC meet, do it!