"No negative thoughts cross my mind on race day.  When I look into their eyes, I know I am going to beat them." - Danny Harris... That was the quote that was bouncing around in my head come race day.  My good friend Allie (Captain of the girl's team) decorated our locker room and put quotes on each locker before the meet.  That was mine. The night before the race I was doing some visualization while listening to some music.  I was also doing this day of.  I wasn't allowing negative thoughts to come into my head.  I kept saying, "You will do well... You will run fast.  You can do this."  I didn't want to leave my last meet knowing that I could have done better. I talked to my legs a little bit as well.  Made sure they were ready. Ty and I wanted to go out relaxed so we did.  We were probably close to the very back of the pack at the beginning of the race.  There were 54 runners.  We hit mile 1 at exactly 5:30, which was the exact split I wanted.  By this time, the runners had formed into a nice long line with equal spaces between each other.  It was time to move up. The race consisted of 5 laps on a golf course.  It ended up being a rather slow course due to the uphill and the headwind.  I did my best to keep my pace strong on the uphill into the headwind but it was tough.  I left Ty after the first mile and kept my pace up.  I just kept passing runners one at a time.  It felt like each time I passed one I had a small surge of energy.  I would pass coach on the side and would want to have moved further up the next time I passed him.  I saw Jef at about mile 3... My mile 2 split was 11:10 I think and then mile 3 was 17:10 so I had slowed a bit.  I caught up to him and gave him a butt tap.  At that point he said, "I believe in you... I believe in you."  It felt good to hear that.  Things like that are what make the sport of cross country different from any other types of running race.  It is a very individual sport but there's something about being out there as a team knowing you're not alone.  Thanks Jef.  I kept going along moving up the line. Coming up to mile 4 I saw Andrew and I gained on him.  I gave him a nice butt tap as well and kept up.  As I was coming to the last mile there were 3 guys ahead of me not too far.  I worked to get up to them.  I passed a Great Falls guy a bit before and he was giving me a run for my money.  He passed me back with about 800 meters to go and all I could think was, "No... I will not be passed on my last meet even if I had already passed him."  I kept my pace up and pushed it.  With about 250 meters left I had a Carroll runner, Lewis Clark, and a Great Falls just ahead of me and I thought to myself... "I have done it... I have beat them!"  There were still 200 meters left :)  The Great Falls guy was about 5 meters ahead of me when we came to the finish line straightaway and I kicked hard.  I passed him and ended up beating him by 5 seconds with 22nd place.  This was another one of the best races I ever had :) Going back to the quote I did beat them.  At least in my mind I did.  I don't think we can always look at the literal translation as in beating them  just means getting first place.  If we can walk away knowing we gave 100% then we have beat everyone.  We can keep our heads held high that we did all that we could do.  I will miss this college sport dearly.  Track season is coming up though so it's not over yet!Â
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