Finally the training is coming together! I ran one of the best races of my life today (disregard time, it was meaningless in this race). I woke up this morning with a sore throat and was a little worried about sickness, but it hasn't set in fully yet. We raced at 8 am, but it was still brutally hot and humid. My race strategy was to just go out conservative and then keep moving up after the mile. I think this race was deceptively tough, and lots of runners got sucked into feeling secure in good footing and a lack of big hills. But the 8 hills added up, especially in the heat, and people dropped like flies. At the gun, I ignored the all-out sprint and went out at race pace, which put me towards the back. It was a little nerve-wracking to watch everybody running away from me, but I stuck to it. I was convinced the heat would kill everybody, and I reached the first mile in 5:06 and was in maybe 50th or 60th place. From there I just focused on keeping my pace as well as I could and moving up. I passed a bunch in the second mile, reaching it in 10:13, so 5:07 for that one. I moved into the top 25 somewhere in here and reached 3 miles in 15:23 for a 5:10. Around here the heat really hit me and I had to just focus on one mile at a time. I reached the front of the chase pack and entered no-man's land, and kept my eyes on the lead pack, slowly reeling them in. The 4th mile came and went in 20:38, 5:15 and some of the lead pack was already falling off and coming back. Up the hills, down the back side, just focusing on ignoring the heat and keeping up the pace. I reached 5 miles in 25:55ish, somewhere around 5:17 for that one. Even though my pace was slowing, runners were still coming back quickly. A lot of the guys who went out in sub-5 were really paying for it. I didn't catch my 6 mile split, but I'm doubting the 5-mile-to-finish measurement since I would have had to run 5:50 pace from 5 miles to the finish to reach my final time, and I know I was running around 5:10 pace that last mile. Anyway, I caught a pack of 3 runners, including one of my teammates, in the 6th mile. The Kangogo kid I couldn't outsprint was part of that pack, and I knew I was once again too late to beat him. As we rounded the final turn to the finish, I went after him and pulled ahead of my teammate, but Kangogo managed to put about 2 seconds on me in the last 200m. As I approached the finish line my stomach began to reject my treatment of my body, and I immediately began to hurl the instant I crossed the line. I hurled, and puked, and spewed some more in utter agony while I got to deal with the affects of the heat on my body. It's a beautiful thing to puke post-race, and this is only the second time I've had the honor of doing it. I'm happy with today, especially because I know that, despite the puking, I was holding back a gear or two in the second half of the race. I was able to push it harder but was content to hold my pace so long as people were coming back. And there was another gear available in the finish, but I decided to save it for nationals. The team ran great. We went 5, 15, 16, 24, and 26, putting 4 and almost a 5th in All-Region honors. We placed 3rd behind 2 very good teams, and are looking forward to going after another top-10 spot at nationals. Afterwards, we spent the day on the north shore, eating at fruit stands and hole-in-the-wall food stands. We spent a few hours swimming and getting pounded by the surf and enjoying the warmth at Sunset Beach. This will always be one of my favorite experiences. Especially since the relaxation on the beach was just capping off the satisfaction of a good race. It was beautiful. | 