First, I just want to thank my parents for sending me to Orlando to compete at this meet to try and qualify for the dream mile. While I wasn't able to get my goal, I was close. Around 9 miles overall. Warmed up early because I thought there was only one heat of everything and they were cruising through the schedule earlier in the day. I felt great. It was really hot, humid, and windy. I planned on letting the race go out and sticking in the pack the first lap or so. I talked to a few guys before the race and there was a cool group running in the race. Bryce from Oklahoma was seeded second and asked before if I was going to start fast and if I wanted him to keep some guys from cutting into us early on. I didn't think it would be necessary, so I said I'd probably be good.
Well, the race started and it was violent. There was plenty of pushing, and about 150m in, nobody would let me get into the outer lanes, so I slowed and put in a surge to get back up to the front area. I was in about 2nd or 3rd. From here, Bryce led most of the race. We came through 409 meters at 1:04, so fairly slow, and then 2:07/08 through 809 meters, so we were just on pace to beat the slow heat. I wasn't feeling the greatest, it felt like a fast race, but wasn't. Somewhere around here Avery passed me. I just kept trying to draft on these guys, but the wind was at a weird angle and I seemed to always have a headwind on the first 200m. We cam around 1209 meters at 3:09/3:10, and those two started to gap me. They had about 5 to 10 meters on me with 175 meters left in the race. I just tried to stay close enough and hope to kick well. With 100m left I cut out to pass them, and they both cut into the outer lanes. Crap, I should've stayed in lane one. With 90 meters left I passed Bryce, and then 50-60ish I passed Avery, and thought I have it. This thought lasted 2-3 seconds, and I had stopped giving it 100%, and he just passed me. I kept trying with 10 meters left, but just came up short as could be. He beat me by .02 seconds right at the line. 4:08.55 to 4:08.57.
I cooled down with Frank and another guy from Georgia, then watched the 800s, got my spikes back on and ran the 3200m. I wasn't mentally ready at all, and was just tired from the mile. I just ran it to run it. The meet record wasn't extremely quick(9:22), so I just went for that. My last two laps were pretty slow, but I just didn't have much motivation. I think I ran a 9:17 or something close to it. I ran solo from 600m to the end, but started leading at 200m.
I cooled down with Steven Cross after. He was actually also at Footlocker this year, so it was cool to talk to him about that stuff after.
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