Recovery

The Steeplechase was scheduled to start at 7:45, so Carrie and I went to the water barrier at about 7:00 to get some practice jumps. During the jumps, I almost ran into the barrier and with my sudden stop, my green shoe totally ripped. Bill wrapped athletic tape around it, and the blue one so that it wouldn't rip more. Cheapo shoes that cost a fortune. When Carrie and I went to get our numbers, I was seeded 1 and she was 5. The race people then told us that they moved it to 7:30, giving us no time to warm up whatsoever. We did a couple of strides to get our heart rates up before starting. For the first lap, they didn't have the first and second barriers set up, but when we got to the 200 mark we had the first one. My first jump into the water pit was alright, and I got out of it fast and went over the next barrier. I wasn't really thinking about the barrier right after the finish line, and saw it just in time to step on it and jump off. I worked my way up by keeping my eyes on the next girl, picking and passing. There were only 8 girls in the race and top 6 get medals, so my goal was to have at least 2 behind me. When I was on my 4th lap coming up on the barrier before the water pit barrier, I was watching the girl in front of me trying to pass her. I noticed she was dying on the hurdles of the barrier and then I saw that I was really close to it. I simply stepped over it as fast as I could and sprinted to the water pit. As I passed the girl the tape on my green shoe went flying off, and when I went into the water pit she passed me. When I got out of the water pit I sprinted to the girl and cleared the next barrier before her and looked at the 2 and 3 girls battling for 2nd because Carrie had a big lead on them. Going into my last lap I made every jump on the barrier and my water jump was alright. Coming out of the water pit on that last lap I saw that I could potentially catch the two girls in front of me, so I really worked it to that last barrier and to the finish. I didn't catch them, but it was my first time doing Steeplechase ever, and I'm happy with my time, happy with my place, and happy with my race. We watched the boys run and watched our Utah boys get 1, 2 and 6, then watched our boys 4x800 take 2nd and girls 1st. Then Bill took Carrie and I on a 3 mile cool down just around the big field and the stadium. Then we all went to Applebees for dinner. Time to focus on the 3200 that I didn't prepare for... Good thing Nat's flying down tomorrow and bringing me my old spikes, since these crappy overpriced spikes that I loved so much are really no good anymore.