So I am satisfied with my race, just not the time. Although I geuss it's pretty good that I only missed my PR by 6 seconds considering the 80-90 degree heat with no shade. I woke up not feeling super great, and I was kind of still feeling the soreness from our tempo run on monday, but as the day progressed, the soreness faded, and I felt okay. I did a good job hydrating, too.
When we got to the course it was about 2:30, so I had some time to kill, and most of it was spent relaxing in the shade under our team canopy, with the occasional port-a-potty run. I did watch the races, and they were great. Keith placed second in the JV race, and my other teammate Vickie Krull placed 2nd in the girls varsity race to Miranda O'very.
I started warming up at 4:40 (the race was scheduled to start at 5). I felt about the same as the warmup at the Aggie Invite. After some stretches we went to the starting line, did some strides, and the race soon started. the sprint-out felt fast again, and Damon reminded me to chill out, so I took it a little slower in the first mile. I came through the 800 at 2:40, so a little quick, but that was just because of the sprint off the gun. (2:40 800's were actually my mile pace in track last year, so that gets me excited to see what my mile is once the season's over) At this time I was running with Zair and Damon, and I came through mile 1 at 5:48, so I did a better job pacing wise than at the Aggie Invite. This was where I sort of pulled away from Damon and Zair, and cruised through mile 2, which felt pretty easy and quick. At the end of mile 2 (which I don't know the splits for), I passed Johnny, which really surprised me because he ran a 1:56 800 in track last season, but he also hasn't been running as much due to illness and injury. He apparently dropped out right after I passed him, which is fine, it only counts at region, and it also is nice to know that our score (5th place) could have been better with him. A while after I passed Johnny I looked at my watch and it said 12:30, so I thought if I just held my pace I would PR, so either I was wrong or I didn't hold the pace. Anyways the last mile was great because I passed maybe 5 or 6 people, and I've really never done any major passing in a race, so that was awesome, plus I know that that helped us beat West Side and Preston, because there were guys on those teams in the group that I was passing. But it was more likek I was passing kids 1 at a time, just picking them off. I was pretty fun actually. Towards the end I was on this Sky View runner's heels, I passed him right before the turn onto the straightaway, and tehn he let out a ferocious yell and took off. That made me so mad, so I screamed, too. And I can actually see why he did it. It triggers some adrenaline. I think I'll try it full on at Bob Firman next week. In fact I'm pretty sure I remember Brian McKenna (our old coach) say that last year. So teh Sky View dude and a Preston runner just took off, and I sprinted as hard as I could, but to my dissapointment I didn't PR. I'm going to blame it on the heat.
Like I said, this gets my hopes up for region because of the fact that we could beat Mt. Crest if we all work hard for the rest of the season and race to our full potential on that fateful day. We do have Bob Firman to try adn beat them, too. And then we have one more race, the Bear River Invite, and then region and I'm really hoping state.
 Entering the final 400m in hot pursuit of a Sky View runner, with Vickie and Keith cheering me on.
Entering the final straightaway with Jake to my left yelling encouragingly.
 Letting out a roar in response to the Sky View and Preston runners' kicks.
Home free to the finish:
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