I woke up a bit late today so I was a bit stressed about getting up to USU on time, but it was no big deal. Got registered and started out with a mile warmup.
I did some warming up on the track and some leg swings, then got over to the start line of the 1600. I hopped in the second heat. I started on the very back outside of the line. I thought I was one of the slower ones there so I didn't try too hard to get near the front. The gun went off and I was more or less stuck for a while. The track isnt very wide and there wasn't much room to get around. I ran a good chunk of the race in lane 2 just moving around people. I just tried to hang on for the first 800 meters and then started to pick it up the last 8. I was slowly picking my way up the group and settled around the middle. I felt pretty strong and caught stockton with maybe 150 meters to go. He slipped back in front of me with 100 to go and we sprinted to the line, he got me but Jacob Malone beat us both there with a great kick. I ended up 8th in my heat and 24th out of 98 boys total. Jacob Stockton and I all finished in 4:54.. only several tenths of a second between us three. It was good and bad. It was technichally an official PR but I have ran faster outside of racing. But it was a great way to start off the season.
2.02 miles cooldown on some really sweet trails that overlooked the island all covered in fog. It was a good mental break.
After a bit of a rest I got warmed up for the 3200.
There was only maybe 10 kids tops in the 3200, maybe less. I started on the line and settled into 3rd right away. I held that for a while. I was coughing during the race pretty bad and had a little trouble breathing at first, but that went away. About 800 into the race an East kid, Chris, caught me. He pulled ahead but quit accelerating. I sat on him for a bit and then put a little surge on. He dropped pretty quick and didn't have much to cover it with. By running with Chris, it kept my pace high which helped me close in on second place. With 800 to go I thought I might be able to take second, I was maybe 3 seconds behind. We hit 400 to go and he had a pretty solid kick so I didn't gain any more ground on him. I finished third with a new PR of 10:16.53. Once again I am happy but I hoped for better.
Finished out the day with a painful cooldown with Conner and Stockton back to my house and around the block.
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