A.M. Three easy miles in about 24:00. P..M. Ran a 0.5 warmup and did some strides. From looking around at the competition, I had this suspicion that the winning time would be 14:45, and it was pretty close to that. From the start of the race, it felt too easy. By 200 meters, a leading pack of four had formed. Myself, Grant Gardner, Casey, and one other kid in a green jersey. Four is unusually large for a leading pack of a kids' race of that size. Then the messing around began.
Green jersey took the lead, and the rest of us happily tailed him. I think that me, Casey, and possibly Grant, could have broken away, but everyone was too scared of everyone else to make a break. We were all thinking "If I go ahead, someone will tail me and then out kick me. Better stay where it's safe." I tried a few surges, but when the others easily responded, I backed off. Around 1900 to go, my Dad yelled at me to drop everyone, so I surged. The course goes by the finish chute, then does another mile loop before actually finishing. So everyone, thinking it was the end and that I was just kicking, went after me. Green jersey actually sprinted into the finish chute a mile too early, and found to his dismay that there was still a mile to go. Our split at 1.5 was 9:22! (6:14 pace) That is some serious messing around. We were racing like they do in the Olympics (Much slower, of course, but the same concept.) The false kick wore green jersey out enough to make him drop back with 1300 to go. Then Grant took the lead for 200 meters, only to be passed by Casey, who was making his move with 1100 to go. I went after Casey. Grant tried, but being only twelve, he died around 900 to go. All this happened on the biggest, meanest, ugliest hill (which we had to run twice for the 4K, unfortunately) Then with 750 to go, I kicked. Despite my 1.5 miles of 'resting' at 6:14 pace, it was miserable. At 600 to go, the race director was standing on the side of the course. He shouted, "Now it's a real race!" I kept thinking Casey was catching me. My dad wasn't much help, shouting "He's catching you! He's catching you! Pick it up!" Casey was actually not catching me. I ended up gapping him by 5 seconds and narrowly winning.
| 