C Mantz Running

     XC-We did a loop of 1200s and 800s, supposed to be at I pace.  I wasn't feeling great, but I tried to still give a good effort.  3 min. recovery.  The times were awful, but everyone was running slow times, so I think maybe the course was just hard.  It wasn't thye were a little slow, they were horrible. It was uphill, so that might've effected it.  After the 3X1200+800 we did 4X200m at mile pace. We headed up on the track for this.  I hit 28, 29, 29, 30, so I made sure none of these were slow. Cool down after. 

   PM-2 miles late at night.

    A little back pain, so I just decided to move my tempo run to Saturday and make today long. It was my first time in a while going to the campgrounds of Smithfield Canyon, and it was peaceful.

     Pre-meet with about half the team(school started today for Sophomores, so a lot of people were supposed to help them.).  6 strides.  Then 4 miles on my own.

      Weird meet.  I was helping out with the first day of school assembly, so I was super stressed yesterday and this morning about that, so I didn't know how the race would go.  The assembly didn't go too well(or atleast my groups part), stuff kept breaking or falling out.  When we got to the meet, I jogged around more than usual, and it kinda hit me that since I was a senior I was supposed to help the younger kids on the team, so I got two warm ups in.  I felt a little flat, but know I'd worked hard in the summer and was ready to run quick.

     The gun went off, and Alex and I ran side by side for the first 200m, then he dropped a little back.  I felt weird. I was hurting during the race, but it didn't feel like I was pushing it.  It didn't feel like a race.  Not really sure how that works.  One kid went with me, Christian Allen, and he ran a gutsy race. At the mile, it went me, him, and then Alex.  Alex ended up falling off here and taking 17th, but it's okay, he'll come back at state.  After the mile, I just kept the pace rolling. I threw in a few surges because, in all honesty, I was getting a little scared of Christian.  About a mile and a half in I started feeling better, and was able to actually get into a race rythym.  I kept pushing it and heard I was around 10:06 at the 2 mile.  The crowd support at this point in the race was amazing.  There were just people everywhere cheering you on, and it motivated me(that's why cross country is so great.  Everyone cheers on everyone).  The timer on the finish line was off, so I just finished and didn't know my time until this morning.  Christian finished well, Garek took 3rd, then Josh ward, then Alex Parsons. 

     Talked and met a lot of people from all over, then cooled down.  Our team ended up placing 6th, and we had one guy lose a shoe, another have an asthma attack, another lifted an hour and a half the day before the race, another was sick, so I think if we can keep our shoes on and stuff, the team is looking great.  On the girl's side, our team placed 9th, which is better than their 13th from last year. Claire especially ran well, placing 31st.

      Workout today at cross country.  We did hills/sprints.  There was a loop(about 1.6 miles) that we would sprint when going east(or uphill) and go easy, but not too slow, when going north and south.  There were 3 short sprints, 1 medium one, and one long one up a nasty hill.  We ended up doing the loop 4 times.  After practice I ran 4 more miles. 

    10 miles up the canyon, back down, and then up 6th south in the morning.  2 miles later in the day.