A new route will be taken when Ian Baker returns to the Nike Cross Southwest Regional next year.
It was the first time the Gunnison sophomore participated in the event and the drive to Arizona left him wanting for five hours with the dearth of food options along the way.
Despite the food desert, in his 257-person heat, Baker finished with a time of 17 minutes, 15 seconds, which was good for 57th place.
Which was a result that didn’t meet his sub-16 goal, but it set him up for future success. He’ll have a better handle on all the logistics when he returns. Things that could be taken for granted at a smaller meet; where to warm up, where to find a restroom or how to break from the line are all known hurdles he’s faced and overcome.
At a race where there are spectators at every turn along the course, he knows how to handle the emotions and any pre-race jitters that might creep in.
Baker is ready for success.
“Honestly looking back, I was pretty mad because, wow, I just got a whole minute off my goal time,” Baker said. “I kept thinking I shouldn’t be almost a minute off my (personal record). I just came down to sea level, I should blast my PR. But looking back, two weeks of solo training was hard and after state, I felt like I was done. But I thought I could squeeze one more race out.”
Where Baker is encouraged, though, is in the style of race in which he ran. Because the course felt so flat, he broke from the line hard.
Normally, he’s laboring, fighting the burn the entire time when he selects that pace. But at the Nike Cross that didn’t happen. Even though his legs weren’t “fully there,” he said it was the “best race he’d run” because he spent the entire time passing other runners.
“I went out hard and usually when I do that, I start breathing hard and my lungs start dying, they burn and I can feel it,” Baker said. “It never really got there. Maybe it hit me a little from mile two to three. But normally I get hit going from one mile to 1.5 miles.
“I think being at sea level helped me to get out fast. Normally I have to calm my breathing, but on Saturday, I was like, ok, I’m fine, let’s go. The kick was amazing; I probably started it as 600 meters and the last 300 meters I went full out with it. I caught six people in the last 100 meters.”
While the Gunnison team will start to prepare for indoor track season the first week of December, Baker might travel to one more race this school year. There’s an event in Alabama towards the end of outdoor track season.
There’s a lot of humidity and oxygen in Alabama for cross country runners. And he already has the experience of what a big time, professional feeling race is like.
“It served its purpose,” Baker said. “This year I wanted to go, have fun and get a feel for it.”
(James Nokes writes for Colorado Preps.)
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