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.
rrunnin234 