badgers and the shamrock shuffle.

first off, yesterday's race was another feather in my cap, so to speak. it was an out and back course (relatively flat with a few false flats that hurt coming back) and the 5km race went out a few minutes after the 10km race. i went out with one thing in mind...run the first mile within myself. i was able to cross the mile in 5:39 feeling relaxed (a month ago i was running that pace at mile 1 and felt blown). i wanted to hold steady to the turn and then start to push coming home. i hit a lot of traffic and almost got hit by a car on two seperate occasions. i didn't get a 2 mile split but hit the 3 mile at 17 flat and finished in a 35 (ick). but, mission accomplished. new pr and an indication that my hard, patient work is paying off.

now, the badgers. i'm not making excuses...but (famous last words, right?). to me, it looked like the last month or so the two most important players on the team were worn down and tired (tucker and flowers). tucker was getting his points but he didn't have the lift that he had in mid season. and flowers was a half step slower since the last regular season game against osu, he was fouling a lot out of sloppiness (not what you want from your lock down defensive gaurd). anyway, a loss is a loss. they fought hard but couldn't pull it out. here's to next year!

they lose tucker but are stronger at every other position next year. hughes is going to be just as good as flowers defensively next year, which means they can platoon and be fresh for the stretch run. bohananen is less of an explosive player than taylor but is a lot more consistent. and the bigs will have one more year of experience.

the most dissapointing thing in my mind is that lon kreuger didn't wear the sportcoat/turtleneck combo that i remember him wearing at illinois. that's classic.

congrats to pat for winning the human race 8km race in st. paul today. that's some fast running.