Gosh I don't know where to start on this report. This was a race of extremes. The hardest race I've ever run, the most fun I've ever had at a meet, and the most extreme weather I've ever raced in. We pulled into Spokane Thursday night and settled into the hotel. I love my teammates. They know how to stay loose and not get too tense with all the waiting. They embody every ridiculous and crazy attribute runners represent. We had a great time in the wait leading up to race day while not losing focus of what we were there for. Plus, I felt like I had recovered from my breathing problems, so I was not in doubt of a good performance. Race day arrived with 20 degree temperatures and about 4 inches of new snow. I have never raced in snow, and the feel of the course was so much cooler to me than when we were at Regionals two weeks ago. I love racing in bad weather. Our super fans showed up early, stripped down to shorts and shoes, and covered themselves in blue body paint. They were amazing. We had around 50 students show up, and between them and parents and coaches and teammates, we had a serious fan section going on that course. There were very few parts of the race that I couldn't hear the chants of my teammates. Awesome stuff. I also loved the moment when the Chico State fan section tried to start a fight with ours by circling our group and engaging them in a chant war. It got a little tense... I have to say I was genuinely surprised no punches were thrown. Although one of our signs was stolen, the perpetrator was tackled and the sign retrieved, though the thief managed to take a bite out of it before it was wrested from his grasp. I don't have a ton of detail to provide of the race. The snow was tough to run in. I got out in a good pace (5:06 first mile, 10:15 at 2) but struggled to pick up runners from there. I started around 80th placed and was only able to move up to 63rd by the end. It was frustrating to be running as fast as I could and not be able to pick up many more places. It was an absolute battle, start to finish. But I felt like I gave it everything I had, and I crossed the finish line knowing I had done all I could do. Even though I was gunning for an All-American spot, 63rd is a universe apart from my race 2 weeks ago where I struggled to place 47th in my region. And I ran a few seconds faster on a course that was made 200 or so meters longer (it was short last time) while racing in some serious snow. I was shocked at how fast the race started. Something to think about and remember for championship race: fast starts. After 2-miles, my pace slowed considerably. I feel like I've lost a bit of fitness between now and midseason, and I'm not sure why. I plan to look back over my training and try to figure it out. Maybe I need to not taper so early or so much coming into these races. I simply felt like I wasn't in good enough shape to run at my mid-season form. The best part of the meet for me was how well the team placed. After leading our team for most of the season, I was 2nd today and our pack was fairly tight. About 50 seconds between 1st and 5th. Even though none of us felt like we had the races we wanted, we pulled out a 10th place finish. We came in today with a 22nd place ranking. After losing 3 All-Americans last year, it was a great feeling of accomplishment to have done this together. After the race, we set loose on all the things we'd been avoiding all season. For me that meant ridiculous amounts of chocolate and Mt. Dew. We stayed up all night celebrating, and if this report isn't entirely coherent, it's because I'm going on 40 hours of no sleep. I'll have to say that the highlight of the night was having to chase one of my teammates through the hotel at a dead sprint because he had decided, in his drunken state of mind, that he should go use the hot tub in nothing but a jingle bell man-thong. It was simply amazing. I love my choice to join this team. Absolutely priceless.
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