Gatorland Run: Interview with Boys Winner Bret Crawford (Grayson County)

Bret Crawford is a junior at Grayson County High School in Leitchfield.  He is currently ranked #5 in Class AAA in the last set of KYtrackXC.com State XC Rankings.  Andrew Atkins interviewed via Facebook after his win at Gatorland Run. 

 

KY: Who did you think you were going to have to compete against coming to gator land?

BC: I knew that there was going to be good competition coming in, since we had a few of our tougher regional competitors there today, so I knew that that's where most of my competition would come from.

 

KY:  There was a pretty big group at the mile even at your speed (4:58 area) and another decent group at 5:02, seeing that many people go out fast how did that affect your race strategy?

BC: Well the pace was being pushed and to be honest, I didn't plan on going out nearly that fast haha. Eventually I was able to settle (sort of) and when the 2nd place runner got around me, I just tried to run off of his shoulder until I saw a good place to make a move on him.

 

KY: You had a second lead at the two mile, when did you start to really pull away from second place?
BC: I made my initial attempt to get around him going up the hill on the second loop and used the hill to my advantage. I guess coming off the hill is where I started to attempt to break away from him, as well as doing a small acceleration at the two mile mark and then trying to maintain that pace for as long as I could.

 

KY: With two great races in a row, how do you feel you'll stack up against the competition at state?
BC: I think as long as my training keeps coming along, then I'll hopefully be with that front pack. There's alot of tough competition going to be there at state, but I'm looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully I'll be able to put together a good race next weekend as well.