Month: March 2025

World Masters Cross Country 2025: A Recap

Sisu. Finnish for strength, will, and determination.

Although we raced on just the third day of the spring, the World Masters Athletics (WMA) cross country championship was my biggest race for the spring or winter of 2025. Preparation this time was a little different, because I mixed in more cross country skiing (on average two workouts a week) for recreation and to supplement my training. The result was less running volume no more than 40-50 miles a week of running, compared to 60-65, and fewer workouts overall. The workouts I did were less intense and frequent than in years past.

Following US Nationals in January I took a four week break from tempo or speed workouts, and I resumed doing regular sessions in February. These sessions were nothing fancy. Typically, I would do a tempo or threshold session early in the week and a few days later something involving 5K to 10K effort. I did a couple double threshold days, but these were not an emphasis as they had been during the winter over the past few years. The routine was solid and I averaged about 8 or 9 hours a week of training since January.

This year’s WMA races were in Florida so I decided to include some heat training to prepare for warm/humid weather. Twice a week over the past five or six weeks I went to a community fitness center and spent 15 or 20 minutes in the steam room (the sauna was not functioning properly) and then donned a couple layers of running clothes and I ran on the treadmill for 25 to 45 minutes. This was nothing radical, but it seemed to serve me well in 2018, when I ran the Gasparilla 15K in Tampa.

I was prepared but heading into these championships did not feel as sharp as last summer, when I raced in Sweden, and not nearly has honed as I was in 2019 when the championships were in Poland. Noteabley, my recovery days of late have been much slower (about 30 seconds per mile) than in previous years. However, my workouts were close to what I had been doing in 2023 and 2024, and I felt confident that I could get another world medal and maybe a win.

I have never won a championship cross country race although I have done so on the roads more than a dozen times. Leading up to Sunday’s race, at the US cross country championship events I have had five podium finishes (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024, 2025), and two bronze medals at the WMA championships (2019, 2024). A win would be nice. Here is how it went down in Gainesville.

Travel

I traveled to Florida on Thursday evening, but did not get to my hotel in Jacksonville until midnight. On Friday I drove to Gainesville and my first stop was for a shakeout run at the cross country (and throws venue), about 10 miles west of the city and the University of Florida.

It was fun to drive through the city with it’s storied running history going back to the days of Olympic Gold Medalist Frank Shorter and writer John L. Parker Jr., author of Once a Runner, which was set in a fictitious version of Gainesville. And more recently it has been home of the NCAA track and field champion Florida Gators, where the likes of Olympic Gold Medalist Grant Holloway and Olympian Parker Valby still train.

The 2K loop on a former golf course was mostly flat, with a few bunkers along the way to break things up, but lumpy and sandy. I would like to see more hills and interesting terrain but it was fair enough.

Course preview on Friday

On Saturday I returned to the course, after my easy run and a few strides, I spotted my friend Jukka from Finland. He won WMA XC in 2019 and 2022. Last year we raced in Sweden and I was 3rd and he was 4th. That day I wore spikes and he wore Nike Vaporflies, and that may a have been the difference. Before the race the other day he showed me his brand new Nike Dragonfly XCs and said “Now we are even!”

On Friday I ran into my friend and primary competition, Jukka from Finland.

Otherwise I was very boring and only ventured out from my Airbnb for essential trips. I’d like to go back Gainesville some day for a winter training camp, then maybe I would have some more time to check out the city and university.

Race Day

Friday and Saturday mornings there were surprisingly cool in the 40s, and it only warmed up late in the morning. But things heated up quicky on Sunday when it warmed up almost 20 degrees from 50 to 70 in just a couple of hours (and then climbing to 80 later in the day).

The temperature was already in high 60s when we raced, and about 70 by the finish. It was a little warmer than I would like but thankfully it was not oppressive.

The race had three five-year age groups combined, covering men from age 55-69. Each time I do one of these WMA races age range gets larger. In 2019 we just ran one age group at a time, so you knew exactly where you were. And last summer in Sweden we had two age groups of men in their 60s. Nevertheless the field this year was not big (70 runners in all three age groups and only 20 in the men’s 65-69 age group.

After getting yelled at and verbally abused by the official for a few minutes, typical for masters cross country, we finally lined up and the starter fired the gun. I immediately settled into to mid-pack and I counted three runners in my age group who went out faster. Three that I knew of at least: Jukka from Finland, a runner from Algeria (Alem), and another from Argentina. Jukka and Alem gapped me by more than 30-40 meters within the first 400, where we had our first turn. And that gap ended up making the difference on Sunday.

Even though they were well ahead, I stuck to my pacing throughout the first lap and reeled in a half dozen runners and I felt I was running about where I should be. My first mile was in 6:18.

Making my way through the field, end of lap 1.

By the end of the lap, Ricardo the runner from Argentina was coming back, but the runners from Finland and Algeria seemed to have increased their advantage over 40 m. I passed Ricardo early in the second lap and instinctively picked up the pace, and set to work on reeling the other two. The by midway through that lap, Jukka had pulled away from the Algerian, who had slowed down. I caught and passed Alem just after lap 2, and I surged by to discourage him from going with me.

I was getting thirsty and hot, but had run by the water table twice because they had placed it way off to the left side of the course just before a right hand turn. I didn’t even see the table on the first two laps.

Onto the final lap. One more to catch, Jukka, my friend from Finland. He was still about 30 meters ahead. At the end of lap 3 I finally spotted the water table off to the left side and decided to veer off the tangent to grab a bottle (it was beyond me why they put the table way out there) so I could get a sip and splash some on my head and arms. That felt great and I was rejuvenated, but I lost a few meters. 2K to make the gap 40 meters. Catching Jukka was possible but only if he would have to fade some. I did make up some ground before starting my kick with about 500 m to go. I got back to about 20 or 25 meters back. On the last turn, just 200 m from the finish I went into a full sprint a but then he also kicked it in and I finished 5.6 seconds back.

I congratulated Jukka, who could only mutter “I feel so bad right now!” We had pushed each other out there. This race was all about Sisu. Going against Jukka the Finn, he showed a lot of Sisu out there and would not let up. I’m half Finnish myself. I felt that also ran with guts and determination, I just did not quite have that extra gear on to reel him in.

I did not get the gold medal but did win an World Championship upgrade to a silver. A win would have been great, but I am not too disappointed. We won the team title (also did in 2024), so we got another medal for that. Avg. 6:20/mile, about 87% age grade which has been about where I have been landing for XC races over the past couple of years.

Men’s 65-69 age group individual podium at the WMA 8K cross country championships in Florida.

Individually it was close but not quite. Teamwise, which is why I chose this race instead of the 10K road race, we won easily. In fact we beat all comers (best of the rest combined), and would have been 2nd behind the American men in the 60-64 category, where he did have a half dozen teams.

Team USA taking the age group gold medal in the 8K cross country at the WMA championships.

St. Patty’s 5K

I lined up for Saturday’s Sharin’ O’ The Green 5K hoping not to have a blow out. Not my shoes, and not folding in the stretch, I was concerned about holding my breakfast and yesterday’s meals in my intestine. This was my first bicarb (sodium bicarbonate) race experiment and I lived to tell the tale.

Other than some casual ski races in January and February, on the schedule for fitness more than competition, I had only raced once since November and that was 9 weeks ago. However, I needed a rust buster and test effort for the upcoming WMA cross country event this month. I also got my hands on some Maurten bicarb, which is all the rage this year, but like anything new in running that shows success it’s hard to get. Fortunately, one of my friends knows people in the company and was able to get package with four treatments.

Last week I listened to the Physiology of Endurance Running Podcast (they’re nerdy but it’s really good), and their recent interview with Dr. Andy Sparks a researcher who did much of the work on sodium bicarbonate in sport over the past decade. He’s now a research manager with Maurten. In that interview he told tales of their earlier research where athletes had massive diarrheal outbursts or upset stomachs after taking bicarb. But that was before they developed an encapsulated formula that releases the bicarbonate in your intestine, and at a slower rate, rather than your stomach. The issue is the acids in the stomach don’t mix well with the base in the bicarbonate, and that often leads to an upset digestive system.

For years researchers athletes and coaches have recognized the sodium bicarbonate can buffer the exercise induced acidosis in blood and muscles, but the trick was to find a way to get enough into an athlete’s system while not causing digestive upset. However, recently Dr. Sparks and others have shown that encapsulating the bicarbonate and taking it with a carbohydrate gel product, it can be consumed by athletes while not resulting in digestive issues. Indeed it appears to allow greater endurance by buffering the blood.

The trick is that you need to follow the protocol. It’s pretty simple. Eat a light meal a few hours ahead of your exercise (or race), two hours before mix the gel caplets into 200 ml of water, and then a couple of minutes later add in the encapsulated bicarb, mix and then slurp down the tasteless gel in one bout but without chewing the bicarb.

How did it go?

Saturday’s Race

We decided to drive the 80-90 minutes to Fort Collins on Saturday morning, rather than stay in a hotel overnight. I was a little nervous about the bicarb protocol and timing it right while we were enroute, but decided to go ahead with the idea that we would stop about half way there, 2 hours ahead of the race.

After 45 minutes of driving we pulled off and stopped at a service station where I mixed the goop, waited 5 minutes and gulped it down without gagging anything and spilling only a half teaspoon. Two hours to race time.

We arrived in Fort Collins about an hour ahead of the race where I picked up my bib and set about with the warm up. I had planned on 3 miles, but with porta john lines (especially important on this day!) I got in 2 miles with some drills, a short tempo, and some strides. We lined up and everyone one seemed to converge at once, and I could only get as far up as the 4th row, with 30 or 40 people ahead of me in a field that did not look deep.

The plan was to run about 6:08-6:10 over the first mile and then see how it would go on the bike path over the final two miles. My goal was run about 19:00 for the 5K, which age grades to about 88 %.

20 meters into the race, and slightly boxed, in you can see my hat and sunglasses between numbers 288 and 694.

We blasted out of the start and some from behind shot ahead. The pace over the first few hundred meters was faster than I had wanted (sub 6) so I eased up a little. I split the mile in about 6:02, which was a little fast. My breathing was okay.

We had a bit of a headwind as we turned onto the bike path just after one mile. I tucked into a large pack of about 10 runners and found myself near the front of the group. It was a little unnerving to hear so many footsteps right on my heals. I braked a few times because the leaders of the group slowed a bit, and also eased up once, at about half way because a guy was breathing so heavily, practically in my ear. That was a distraction and either I could pick it up and get a gap or slow a bit and run behind him for a bit.

On the bike path, about 2 km into the race.

I fell back to about 4th or 5th in that pack, trying to keep focused and in contact. By 2 miles I had moved back up some and the pack was dissipating by then. We split in about 12:10, so a 6:08 second mile. That felt about right and it felt like I could run about 19-flat or under if I could hang on.

However, I started to get the feeling that I might need to go to the bathroom. Hold on! Less than a mile to go. I got gassed (tired) at 2.5 and slowed down for a few hundred meters. Two runners went by quickly. They were younger and closed under 6:00 for the last mile. Then two more went by, but they were not moving as fast and I was able to maintain a better pace, about 5 meters behind them. We popped off the river and over a bridge at about 2.8 miles, and I was back onto 6:00-6:10 pace for the stretch. Over the last 200 or 250 m, just before the 3 mile marker (3 miles in 18:28), I threw down all I could and had a strong kick (5:40 pace). I passed those two and pulled away by 4 or 5 seconds. Officially finishing 19:17, but I think that was a little long. And my watch had me closer to 19:05+/-.

Finishing kick!

My intestines were okay, but I did seek the nearest bathroom within 2-3 minutes after crossing the line. No upsets or accidents. All was good.

Post-Hoc

This is why we do rust busters. I think my fitness is there, but the pacing was not perfect (see pace chart). The finish was crazy fast, however, and that’s encouraging.

Pace chart from Saturday’s 5K. Note the quick start. The big dip at 2.1 miles was actually going under a double bridge. Ideally I would have liked to hold about 6:10 pace from 2.3 to 3 miles, and hopefully can find that gear when we have the bigger races.

I finished top 20 and won my age group, and pretty much achieved my pre-race goals.

Age grade was 87% for the full time for 5K, if you consider that the course seemed long (3.16 miles) it was over 88%. I probably hit that first mile a bit too fast, maybe 5 or 6 seconds, and that’s why struggled some over the 3rd mile.

Age group winners at Saturday’s 5K in Fort Collins.

What about the bicarb? I think there is something there, that was my best kick in a 5K in a long time. Usually I drop a few seconds in pace, maybe 10-15 seconds per mile under the overall pace, but this was 30+ seconds, and I felt I could have gone another 100-150 meters at this sprint effort, instead of feeling utterly spent when crossing the line. So I am encouraged.