am: 3. ran with the team before my family went up north.
PM: Well we didn't get off from our home till about 12 so i went straight to the race. when i got there i found ogden right off and just hung out with them and did 2 of my 3 mile warm up with them. took a while to get the 4 and a half hour ride out of my legs but other than that i felt really good and felt very confident. i was shooting for around 15:30 which is what ben won it with last year but other than that didn't really know what to expect. got to the line and saw on the paper that i would have my own lane but when i got there i found out i had to share with park city...where ben is from.
the race started and instinly it was ben, jordon cross, and me in a group about in 10th. we headed up the hill and manz was in first (as always) but he made wrong turn and a couple of guys followed him so that pretty much ruined there race but put us three to the top. pace felt nice and i stayed on the edge focusing on my short stride and on Jordon cross. by the big hill i was in first and stayed in first off and on (mostly on) for about another mile and a half which i didn't mean to do but thats just how it worked out. soon it was just me cross and ben in a group and ben pulled the oldest racing trick in the book that me and cross both fell for, where he'd speed past us, we'd go with him, then he'd slow down and we'd pass him keeping that pace and he'd ride off us.
about half mile left i fell me and cross fell off ben and then a little bit later i fell off cross and started to slow down a lot. but people kept cheering for the guy behind me so i knew he was getting closer so i pushed hard all the way to the finish. getting 3rd by 4 seconds and ben got 14:46! i later found out that this course might have been a 2.9, which makes more sense cause these are really fast times. but at least i killed my goal by 30 seconds!
things i learned is that i really need to work on my kick. i dont know how but i'll look for something. also i need to stop falling for racing tricks so i dont fall behind early :) afterward i couldn't walk way straight and felt terrible, thats when the elevation hit me (not so much during the race though) so i knew i ran my hardest so thats good. plus i didnt have my team there. hope they do good at SUU. glad i could race my 3A compitition before state. | 