I'll write more about it when I get back home. It was a good race, I ran it smart and finished strong.
I warmed up a mile with Elijah, then did a little more on my own. My dad had been helping out all week and making sure I could have a good race. My dad and I had a spot to meet up for him to give me my spikes and bag before my race. I couldn't find him, and was freaking out, but after 5 to 10 minutes I found him. I checked in, changed spikes, drank a lot of water, and went through the rest of the routine before the race. My plan was to stick on someone if they were hitting 34s-35s (or faster, but I didn't think that would happen), and if they got off pace, I would go around them and put a surge on to lose them. If no one was going to lead it, I would, but I would throw surges so no one could pace or draft (kind of a mean thing to do, but that's sometimes how races go). My uncle had came, and I could hear him everyback stretch yelling at me.
We started out on a staggered waterfall, and I just hung to the inside of the lane and was in the back. I slowly moved up to second. Somewhere along here I got spiked for the first time. It was pretty bunched and a lot of people were pushing. Aaron passed me and the kid leading it. The leader quickly slowed down, so I went around him and stuck on Aaron. Sure enough, Aaron kept the pace perfect. 4:34 at the 1600m. After this I mentally fell asleep. The pace wasn't killer, and everything was done almost sub-consiously. I looked back a lot, not a good thing to do. Aaron and me broke off the pack after the mile, but I had no idea. With 10 laps to go we were slowing. Aaron's coach was yelling splits, so I could hear if we were on pace or not. We hit a few 35.Xs, and were slowing down, so I jumped into the lead. I didn't surge yet, but kept the pace lively. We actually didn't speed up like I thought we did. We had to finish in a 4:40 for our last 1600m to run 14:30, so I knew it would be close. We had started lapping runners and it was getting a little rough. I saw someone throwing up off the track and was just happy that wasn't me.
I passed Aaron again with 6 laps to go I think. It felt unreal that I was leading it. I felt like he was going to pass me anytime, so I tried to speed it up, but my pace didn't change per 200m. With 600m to go I remembered the 1600m at USU indoor, and my big surge with 600m to go, so I did that. I think I ran a 34/33 that lap, and then the last 2 laps didn't feel like they happened. It felt like a dream. I pushed myself, because I thought someone would be on my tail. It felt like a dream, like something I imagined when thinking if I would have raced a race differently. I crossed the finish line, and my body just started to burn. I was so exhausted. I looked back and saw Aaron cross. I almost threw up, but held it in. There was a camera guy just videoing me, but didn't say anything, so I was unsure what to do. They took me to the press room, I got interviewed by a lot of guys, so that was cool. After I cooled down with Aaron. Then my uncle to my dad and me to a really fancy Mexican restaurant. It was great. I finally had my break through race I'd been looking for.
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