AWESOME MEET! This one was definitely much better than last week for me. I felt a big difference going into it as I wasn't feeling super nervous or worried. Last week I was fearing the pain that I would have to go through. This week I wanted to focus on my position in the race and each step as opposed to thinking about how much I had left. So needless to say I was feeling a lot more at-ease at the starting line. Unfortunately the race people were retarded and we ended up starting 15 mins late but whatever. This was a huge meet with like 14 races going on throughout the day. We college men were first. We also ran with some track clubs. Anyways we lined up and the guy said, "Ready"... BANG!!! I was expecting a "Set" so I wasn't really ready but oh well I took off nonetheless. I told myself this meet that I was going to stay with my teammate Ty so that was my goal. As we went off we were going pretty quick. I felt myself pushing to stay with the pack. I felt good though so I didn't think on it too much. The course consists running around a lake 3 times then doing a little out and back to the finish line. It's actually about .05 under 5 miles because it's an 8k but I wasn't going to put 4.95 in that little box up top. So the first lap felt good as all the runners start to spread out. I could see Oliver and Jef (my teammates) just up ahead and I wondered if we would be able to keep them in our sights. The first mile I have to be careful of my thoughts. I could feel my mind slipping to thoughts of the magnitude of the race and how much I had left. I had to just shake my head and think of the here and now... Then and there? I just focused on staying with Ty and we did manage to pass a couple of people. There was one nice part just before the first mile that was basically 180 degree turnaround. We had to take that turn 3 times but Ty wasn't too prepared for it the first time and took the longest route possible around it. That was kinda funny. You basically just had to stop and go again which is not easy at that pace. Then came the first mile! The first mile marker was on a beach... Yes we had to run along a beach. Luckily the sand was damp so it wasn't too hard to run through. Ty and I crossed mile 1 at about 5:28. As soon as we hit that I heard some obscenities from Ty out loud. I guess he felt like that was too fast although he said he wanted to hit a 5:30 so that was confusing. I just said not to worry and that it'd be fine. Perhaps I was the one worrying. Last year a first mile like that would have meant my death shortly thereafter but I didn't think that way. After the first mile came the beast hill! You go up a little hill around a bend and then up a HUGE BEAST HILL! The first lap up felt really good and we passed a track club guy. Then on the other side it was a beast hill back down. As we rounded that next bend the track club guy's little girl was screaming, "GO DADDY GO DADDY GO DADDY!" Okay how in the world is he not going to be flying after hearing that?? It was cute. With the first lap down we just kept it up... Through the sand again and over the beast hill one more time. As we were starting the third lap (coming to mile 3) Ty saw an old guy and asked for the race time by saying, "Time". The old guy said, "Sorry". Not sure what that meant but if he didn't give us the race time just because we were a different team then that's just plain rude. Ty did his normal speed up at mile 3... This was where he lost me the last meet but I told myself that it wasn't going to happen again. I had to put forth every bit of mental strength I had to speed up and catch him again. I just had to keep telling myself I could do it. We managed to pass a couple of guys but then they passed us back unfortunately. The third time up the mother beast hill was a bit difficult. Legs were burning. Ty pretty much flew down the other side and I did my best to keep up. We came around the corner and I noticed a couple walking peacefully in on the trail next to where we were running and I felt burning envy! I wanted to be walking peacefully... I knew we were close but it was mentally tough because they had no marker for mile 4. I couldn't really tell how much we had left. We went down and then started coming back to the finish. Ty was about 8 seconds or so ahead. He was probably around 6 or 7 when we rounded the turn toward the finish. There it was! The finish line! I was giving it everything I had until I saw that the clock was still under 29 minutes! Then I gave it more than everything I had. I kicked hard and came across at 28:43 (3 seconds behind Ty). I was completely fine with that considering there were no runners in between us. Felt really good that I had kept my goal. I ended up having an AP of about 5:47 Team got 4th out of 5. We were able to beat a track club ;) Our guys 16th Andrew Archer 26:58 25th Oliver Lange 27:42 29th Jef Marsicola 28:18 35th Ty Gregg 28:43 36th Me 28:46 49th Ian Asay 31:19 GO TEAM!
| 