Warmed up about a mile. I was the number four seed at the starting line. I was nervous, fearing I was about to experience 10 minutes of pure pain. My first 200 was in 34. As expected, the leaders went out fast. At the 200 mark I was in 7th or so place. Over the next two laps I caught up to the leaders. I was feeling good. The next lap felt a little slow - 80.5. At that point, I was surprised to be halfway done and not yet hurting. Then my Dad yelled at me to make them go faster, I didn't have the confidence to take the lead, so I settled for applying pressure from behind - a mistake, as my Dad later pointed out. The pace picked up over the next two laps. I kept applying pressure from behind, then being squeezed out into the outer lanes. Then, the lead pack broke up. Millesio, the leader, dropped back. He was the first seed, with a personal best of 9:24, but started out too fast and died. Gabriel Fendel, number two seed, best of 9:42, broke away. I followed. Miguel, the number three seed, dropped back as well. I couldn't believe it! I was still with the leader coming into the kick. Unfortunately, I lacked the confidence to kick with 600 to go, and fell victim to Gabriel's 100 meter kick. I started to hurt in the penultimate lap, but only a little. Less than I should have. Lack of confidence hurt me in that race. I kicked with 200 to go, but it was too late. Gabriel passed me back with 100 to go. I didn't have it. The last lap for me was 72 - Gabriel did 70. He put 1.5 seconds on me in the last 100. My only chance was to grind him down with an extended kick. Oh well. I'm very happy with my result in this race (after all, 2nd in a national meet with a state record to boot), but I've learned some important lessons about track racing.
| 