I slept pretty average but was feeling pretty tired throughout school and before the race. I took a 15 minute nap under our team tent and then got warmed up and ready to go with the team. It was a weird feeling when we lined up because we had been working toward this moment since summer, it was strange to realize that we're finally at region and state. The gun wen't off and I had an average/slow start, it turned out to be perfect. I was moving up within the 1st 400 meters and we hit the gravel, still behind several bonneville kids (they start really fast) I slipped in behind Nick and slowly made my way up. I was feeling good and very loose, no liver issues. We hit the mile pretty fast ( i never heard the split but was later told it was close to a sub 5, I don't know how accurate that is though.) by this point I think i was in 5th or 6th place. We went up around the big loop and coming in at 2 miles, I was running in a little pack with Travis and Mark, just hanging off the back (7th place). Mark had this amazing surge at mile 2 (later he told me it was part of the plan) and opened a little gap, Travis and I held reasonably well, but the pace went significantly up. at about 800 to go, mark summers was a ways ahead and Travis and I were neck and neck. I was starting to hurt pretty bad. We rounded the corner into the last 300 ish meters and I have never kicked so hard. He almost caught me in the final straight but I barely held him off. I ended in 6th place, and was very happy, no liver problems. We took 2nd as a team and only lost by 5 points to Ogden. I ran a 15:51 (31 second course PR) and 5:11 average pace. Im super excited for state xc now!
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