Blake Bennions running

I ran 4 easy miles with my team, I felt good running today. After we ran we went to Coach Muphy's room and he talked to us about State and gave us some tips, some that I will definintely try to implement are to go steady on the hills and then surge at the top, he also said to get out in a good position because you will be running the same pace as the guy in front of you for the first mile, I'm supposed to keep in 7th for the first mile or two so I hope the everyone on the team starts well. No one can pass me the last mile so my kick will have to start at the 800 a little bit and then I really need to kill it the last 300-400. More of a race strategy than I've had all year by a ton, hopefully I will break 16:30.

We ran a little to get ready for state, about 1.25 miles I'd guess, then we did a 400 at race pace and then another easy 400. Tomorrows the big day, I just need to remember to pass people at the top of every hill and give a hard effort throughout the race. I am going to do my best and try to pass as many people as I can in the last mile. I really want to run faster than 16:30 tomorrow, I can do it. I just need to race well. I feel ready for the race.

It was an decent race for me, I beat some big rivals in Stockton Smith of Davis and Tayte Polleman of Brighton. Some rivals I will be looking to beat in the next race are: Ethan Stuart of Davis, Trevor Gibby of Westlake, Brayden Walkley of Westlake, and Daneil Bentley of American Fork, I don't know if Daneil will still be running varsity at their next race, so if not my target will be his replacement. Tayte has been a big rival ever since I moved to Utah, my record against him is about even. This is my first victory over Stockton, it's a big deal, I've been trying to beat him for over a year and I did it today. My race started well, I almost got boxed in from the top 50 at the beginning but I escaped through a hole. The first part of the race I was just keeping in range of Conner and Chase, I just kept within 10-20 meters of them. About a mile and a half into the race I realized I needed to start going faster and so I passed Chase before the first trip around the lake, then I cought Conner right before the end of the 2nd mile. I hadn't been expecting to score so I started passing people a little more, I was a little panicked that I was in a bad position for the 5th guy on our team. The last mile was sort of crazy, the weak part of me hoped Chase or Conner would pass me and it kind of prohibited me from using my full 800 meter kick, but I forced myself to stay with Stockton. I had been running with him the entire race and so I just stayed right behind him until I passed him with about 300 to go, I started running faster at that point and I looked  behind and saw someone coming up behind me and then I looked to my right where my coach was yelling for me to pass 8 more guys, so I looked ahead and I saw a big group of guys right there and I started my kick and caught them all. The last 20 meters felt great, I was just striding my way in, I couldn't see anyone ahead of me and I had just passed a large group and lost us some points. I raced better than I have been all year, but there were some things that I will improve on by the next meet. Next time I will make sure to be prepared to run a much better race for a score. I hadn't really been expecting to run as the 5th guy, but next time I will run harder the entire race. I didn't run a bad race at all today, but I think I could have run harder in the first two miles. And I also think I need to push myself to my full kick. I have a month to train for Nike SouthWest, I really need to get a lot better if I'm going to run as our 5th guy and we get 2nd there. This next month is really important to my running, I am going to train really hard.