C Mantz Running

     Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.  When I got to the meet I was hydrated and ready to go.  The coaches gave us breakfast,  we got to skip school, and we had some snacks.  Everything was going pretty great for me, I don't know how it was going for my team-mates though. We watched the girls meet before we got ready and started warming up.  We had a few hours to kill before the meet which were spent talking and watching the other meets.  We did a warm up and stretched.  I felt fantastic.

      The gun went bang, and we were off.  I kinda got boxed in at the first.  I slowed down a bit because the person ahead of me slowed down and I was pushed to the outside on the first turn.  That's when I saw Hendrickson (the runner my coaches had advised me to stay with for the meet until the end) and he was up there leading everyone.  I caught up on the turn and ran with him in my front.  It was still pretty packed.  There was Adam Hendrickson and a guy from Timpanogus ahead of me.  I was in the best spot.  After a while Jerrel came.  We kept running and got more and more spread out from the pack.  I was thinking if I could just stay with these guys I would be great and could get a spot in the top 5 for sure.  For a little ways a guy from Mountain View, who cut me off and made me lose some speed, came in. We were about a mile into the race.  Then nothing really changed.  We kept running hard.  At the last mile everyone sped it up and we lost the guy from Mountain View.  We lost Jerrel, but then he came back.  Then we went around the pond for the second time.  I didn't know how long I could stay with these guys.  I knew it was state and I had to give it my all, so that's what I did.  After a while the Timpanogus guy was a few seconds ahead of us, with Jerrel behind him.  I just left Adam and tried to catch up to them.  There was 600 M left.  I kept putting it out, know this was the time to push it all.  At the road I started sprinting, and passed Jerrel.  I thought, "YES, maybe I can get in the top 2!" and then thought maybe I can win it!  I started running faster and faster giving it my all.  I saw Jerrel's shadow to the right of me.  He was getting closer.  I almost caught the Timpinogus guy, but he beat me by a half second, while Jerrel was behind me by .3 seconds.  Adam came in ten seconds later.  Later the Sky View guys started coming in, all having slower times then usual.  I later found out that they had gotten boxed in in the first part.  Our team took 4th in 4a and we took 5th Overall.  I was happy about my race personally, and happy that I can say that I gave it my all. Jerrel did great also.  He scared me enough at the end to get closer to the winner. It was a good race and season, and I'm sad it is over.  Time to start training for half marathons again.