This morning we got to the start at about 5:20. I walked up to the start line and did a little bit of jogging. Then I did some strides. The race was a little late, so I had some time to do some extra warm-up. I was able to start right on the line. I had a good start. My plan for the race was to run 6:15-6:20's for the first 3 miles and then just do whatever I could for the rest of the race. The first mile everyone went out hard. Me and Zak Erickson were together through this mile. We were close to eachother in the race at Draper, so I figured I was at a good pace. When I came to the first split It turned out I had ran a 5:39. At first I was thinking wow, that was way too fast! But my legs felt fine so I decided to keep pushing. The next mile was a little harder because there was much less downhill, and gradual uphill before the mark. My split for this mile was a 5:45. It sort of worried me to see another split so fast, but I was still feeling good so I didn't worry too much. I was also glad to be pretty consistent in pace. The next mile was a bit harder. It had some steeper downhill as well as uphill. It didn't feel like I was really able to open up on the steep downhill just before 100 s. The uphill didn't feel too bad, and my legs still weren't hurting. My split at the 3 mile time was 6:24, so My 3 mile total was a 17:49. I'm guessing this put me somewhere around 18:30 at the 5k, and my PR in a 5k is 18:59 so that was encouraging. Right after this mark my legs are starting to feel it. My body realizes this isn't a 5k and I was only half way done. I started hurting but I just kept telling myself that I had the endurance and strength, so my legs would get me there I just had to keep pushing and keep hurting. My next split was a 6:15. I was surprised that it was this fast, because it felt like I had really slowed down. This was encouraging and helped me to push a little bit more. There were also a few people ahead of me that I was closing on and this pushed me too. The next mile was a 6:24. I was really hurting by this point, and I was counting down the blocks. I'm not sure if this made it go by faster or slower, but when ever I start to hurt I count down in meters, block, or minutes. If it's really bad sometimes in steps. I think it sort of puts it into a different prespective of how much longer I have to hurt, and breaks it up into sections. The last mile was a 6:52. This didn't feel too bad. I had ran it earlier in the week so I was prepared for it. By that point I had given everything and was just doing my best to get to the finish. The last .2 was 1:25. I didn't have any kick left in me. I was passed by 2 people right at the finish. My kick is something I will have to work on, but for now I was really happy with the race. My overall time was a 38:48. My goal was to break 40, so I did that and was really excited about it. A few things that I was happy about my race were that I kept pushing/hurting the whole time. I've been having a problem with getting into a comfort zone and not pushing out of it. Also I trusted myself more in this race which was important. Alot of races I'll start out at a pace I know I can hold, but I never try to go faster than that because I'm afraid I will die. Today I went out hard and trusted my legs enough not to back off. After the race I went and cheered for my dad on the Marathon. Then I jogged a lap around the park with Carre, for a cooldown. | 