Two Races Deserve Write-Ups!
Artichoke Invitational
On October 5, 2024, MVXC returned to Half Moon Bay for the Artichoke Invitational, held at the site of some of Coach Flatow’s high school glory days. This meet is always a blast, with Coach Paul Farnsworth of HMB working to provide a race that feels more like a party. MVXC had a great time, with good results; the frosh-soph boys placed second, and the varsity girls third out of 18 teams. Riu Yamada, Constantine Chua, Tanay Parikh, Kento Murase, Melinda Zhao, Miranda Hsu, and Anika Bhandarkar all earned medals. Anika, Tanay, and Manasi Prasad also set personal records. After the race, athletes ran from the high school to Venice Beach—it was quicker for them to run than for the parents to drive through the traffic!
Full results are available on XCStats.
Crystal Preview
The Crystal Preview, held on October 8, gives athletes a first taste of the Crystal Springs course ahead of the SCVAL championship in four weeks. It’s a beautiful and challenging course, and our athletes were ready! We experimented with encouraging the runners to control their pace in the first mile, with mixed results (more on that later). Riu, Tarun Gandhi, Constantine, and Melinda ran with the varsity teams for the first time; all of our athletes had strong performances. Personal records were set by Manasi, Miranda, Elina Jalili, Andrew Lai, Kento, Ryan Liu, Jonah Chang, Aidan Cushman-Kihnle, Isaac Yan, Brandon Wang, and Ethan Yang—Manasi and Ethan improved by nearly two minutes each! Anika, Siran Gao, Hemani Kamarshi, Katie Lee, Soham Beesetti, Ryan, Tanay, and Rishi Salvi all improved their marks from the 2023 Preview race, performances that set up well for the League meet. The varsity girls’ team finished 6th, while the varsity boys placed 9th out of the 15 teams in our league.
Complete results are posted.
Mile Splits at Crystal
Coach Curtis was at the mile mark of the 2.95-mile Crystal Springs course, recording our splits. The table below shows our athletes’ first mile splits, finishing times, and the pace change from their first mile to the remaining 1.95 miles. For example, Tanay’s first mile was 36 seconds faster than his average pace for the rest of the race.
| First | Last | Gen | Mile_Split | Fin_Time | Delta_Pace |
| Tanay | Parikh | B | 5:02 | 16:20 | 36 |
| Ryan | Liu | B | 5:56 | 17:30 | 0 |
| Kento | Murase | B | 6:14 | 18:25 | 1 |
| Tarun | Gandhi | B | 6:14 | 18:37 | 7 |
| Riu | Yamada | B | 6:14 | 18:54 | 16 |
| Anika | Bhandarkar | G | 6:20 | 19:12 | 16 |
| Ashwanth | Sundaramoorthi | B | 6:08 | 19:17 | 37 |
| Ethan | Yang | B | 6:28 | 19:18 | 7 |
| Soham | Beesetti | B | 6:32 | 19:24 | 4 |
| Rishi | Salvi | B | 6:28 | 19:36 | 16 |
| Aidan | Cushman-Kihnley | B | 6:07 | 19:47 | 54 |
| Ritik | Shenoy | B | 6:14 | 19:52 | 45 |
| Constantine | Chua | B | 7:03 | 19:58 | -26 |
| Miranda | Hsu | G | 6:09 | 20:08 | 61 |
| Samuel | Heinonen | B | 6:28 | 20:09 | 33 |
| Suhani | Pahuja | G | 6:32 | 20:41 | 43 |
| Brandon | Wang | B | 6:47 | 20:43 | 22 |
| Aaron | Hung | B | 6:43 | 20:45 | 29 |
| Isaac | Yan | B | 6:39 | 20:48 | 36 |
| Aiden | White | B | 7:15 | 20:49 | -18 |
| Andrew | Liu | B | 6:46 | 20:52 | 28 |
| Jeffrey | Choy | B | 7:15 | 21:10 | -7 |
| Jonah | Chang | B | 6:47 | 21:10 | 36 |
| Simha | Satoor | B | 6:45 | 21:21 | 44 |
| Naomi | Hsu | G | 6:58 | 21:26 | 36 |
| Justin | Yaung | B | 7:03 | 22:01 | 38 |
| Darren | Do | B | 7:06 | 22:42 | 54 |
| Manasi | Prasad | G | 7:28 | 22:45 | 22 |
| Vishakha | Shastri | G | 7:21 | 23:00 | 41 |
| Katie | Lee | G | 7:26 | 23:03 | 35 |
| Derek | LI | B | 7:07 | 23:12 | 68 |
| Yibo | Wang | B | 7:06 | 23:14 | 70 |
| Melinda | Zhao | G | 7:33 | 23:33 | 39 |
| Sridhar | Shivashankar | B | 7:41 | 23:55 | 38 |
| Vikram | Mallya | B | 7:54 | 24:08 | 25 |
| Calvin | Strohmann | B | 7:46 | 25:14 | 71 |
| Darren | Hsu | B | 8:40 | 25:42 | 4 |
| Anna | Bauer | G | 8:07 | 25:52 | 59 |
| Medha | Rustagi | G | 8:17 | 26:33 | 65 |
| Siran | Gao | G | 9:02 | 26:44 | 3 |
| Abhi | Kotari | B | 8:15 | 27:03 | 83 |
| Hemani | Kamarshi | G | 8:30 | 27:12 | 65 |
| Aletheia | Ju | G | 8:35 | 27:50 | 77 |
| Myra | Mishra | G | 9:57 | 30:31 | 36 |
| Juliana | Banes | G | 9:32 | 31:06 | 92 |
| Elina | Jalili | G | 9:49 | 32:11 | 99 |
| AVG: 36 |
| Average Delta Pace | 36 seconds |
The numbers seem all over the place! The mean pace for a MVXC runner slowed down by 36 seconds per mile from the first mile to the next 1.95 miles, which makes sense since the first mile has more downhill sections. Tanay’s pace falls right in the middle of the distribution. If we look at Constantine, his -26 pace delta means he was 26 seconds faster per mile in the second half of the race, suggesting he could afford to be more aggressive early on. Meanwhile, runners with larger pace deltas may want to ease off in the first mile. And all this needs to go out the window if you get a cramp or trip or have something happen that throws a wrench into your plans. You are also getting more fit, and that can help you hold a faster pace; so you we are looking at what the race effort feels like as much as what the splits tell us. When you are running a cross-country race, think more about feel than splits; the splits are a guidepost, particularly on hilly courses like Crystal. It’s all about learning from this race and experimenting with tactics!
Finding the right race strategy is an art, and it may take some trial and error. Constantine, for example, passed a lot of people by speeding up—he had the 23rd fastest mile split but finished 13th overall, passing 10 teammates! However, just a few days earlier, he finished neck and neck with Riu, and this time they were 45 seconds apart after just one mile. There’s room for adjustment, but don’t worry—this race was a learning experience. If you think you started too slow, you can always blame Coach Flatow for emphasizing caution at the start!
However you did…I’m proud! Crystal is great, and also a beast. You did well to conquer that animal, and to prepare to come back and do even better.
Dawn Patrol
On Saturday, October 12, we’ll meet at the track at 6:15 AM, before dawn, for the annual Dawn Patrol/Candy Crush run. See you there!
