The cross-country regular season has come to an end, and both UCCS teams are nationally ranked. The RMAC Championship meet returns to Colorado Springs for the first time in 15 years and the conference is jam-packed with talent, and teams have been hard at work preparing for the meet.
Preparation for races predictably involves a lot of running during practices. When someone is asked to envision a runner, they might picture someone slim and lanky. This could not be further from the truth. Aside from cardio, runners participate in a lot of strength training to boast some of the strongest lower bodies across all athletes.
“We do a lot of little things that aren’t the most exciting. They’re not the flashy stuff people would think about, but we call those the one-percenters. All the little things that add up that keep us healthy enough to train at a high level,” said Men’s Head Coach Mark Misch.
Part of the training for runners is also getting into the right headspace. Having to balance work, school, a social life and whatever else may be going on outside of the sport, the best teams at the end of the season are the ones who can manage those factors the best.
“We say the season doesn’t start [until] after midterms, because you get to midterms and that’s a lot emotionally and mentally. You’re preparing for that, and we’re also training hard. All those things factor in when you’re in the trenches part of the season before all the exciting stuff,” Misch said.
Besides training the body and mind for meets, a lot of time is spent strategizing for races—as there is more to meets than running as fast as you can as soon as the gun goes off.
Runners need to study the course and figure out their pacing to decide which sections to expend their effort, and which they will try to conserve energy in.
Pacing can vary for every athlete, so it’s important for coaches to work on strategy with their runners to get any advantage they can on meet day.
“On the surface, it’s very simple, but it becomes more complicated because every team and every athlete is trying to get those little 1% advantages over the other teams, so every little thing makes a big difference,” Women’s Head Coach Corey Kubatzky said.
UCCS competes in the RMAC, one of the most competitive conferences for cross-country, every year. There are six men’s teams and seven women’s teams from the RMAC ranked in their respective top 30 for national rankings.
Competing in a conference with this high of talent can feel frustrating for runners at times. Elite performances can go unnoticed in a region where they have become the standard.
“We have some people on the team who are running at a really high level that might not be in our top seven for our team or might not finish in the top 20 in different races because they’re in a really tough conference, but might go win another conference or be all-conference or all-region in a different place. Sometimes, it takes a hit to the confidence,” Kubatzky said.
While competing in the RMAC can be tough, the coaches also see their level of competition as an advantage. Having to face off against some of the best competition the nation has to offer gives athletes a chance to get a glimpse into what national meets may look like.
“Iron sharpens iron, so when you put these people together, RMAC is like nationals round one. We’ll see these guys and gals again in two weeks,” Misch said.
Being in the RMAC also comes with higher expectations. Athletes who come to UCCS, and other schools in the conference, want to compete in the national meet and aren’t necessarily satisfied with the conference meet.
“For our guys, it’s to be at the national championships every year and do well. They’re not going there to pick up a t-shirt,” Misch said.
The host for the RMAC Championship meet cycles between schools every year, meaning UCCS hosts the tournament every 15 years.
The thought was that there would be some added pressure on the Mountain Lions to try to put on a show for the home crowd with conference coming to town on Oct. 25. But as it turns out, the teams seem to be unfazed by the pressure and instead, embrace it.
“Pressure is something you earn, you don’t have pressure if you aren’t any good. If there’s not those high expectations, you don’t have pressure, so if you’re feeling pressure, it usually means you’re really talented or a high-level athlete and you get to experience things other people don’t,”Kubatzky said.
The meet will be held at Monument Valley Park with the women’s 6K at 9:30 a.m. and the men’s 8K at 10:15 a.m.
Come and support the 13th nationally ranked men’s team and the 8th-ranked women’s team as they make their way to the national championship.
Editor’s Note: The Scribe’s editor-in-chief Joseph Impellitteri is a member of the men’s cross country team.
The men’s cross-country team. Photo courtesy of GoMountainlions.