woke up excited. ate better than i usually do before a race. warmed up 2.25 miles before then did a lot of strides. my goal was a sub 9:27 (school record!) and i was confident i could. ben was going for the state record of 8:54, so if i was at the 200 when he was finishing i would be happy :)
race started and ben was off...never saw him again. it was mainly between me, jake heslington, assay, chuk, and other people i cant think of right now. pace felt very good. it was heslington and assay leading it, but it seemed like they were going a bit slow 4th and 5th laps. first mile went by fast and not much changed: 4:48 and i was mad they we were so off. i was really counting on jake to be on pace for a 9:20, but thats just how it happened. next lap i passed assay cause he fell of jake, who had a 5 meter lead. by the last lap he had pulled ahead by ten meters and i was mad i fell off those laps cause i still felt pretty good. i saw on the clock that i had to run a 1 min last lap to get the record so i took off as hard as i could and started pushing hard, i gained a little bit on jake but not enough, 9: 32, 1:05 last lap.
i was really bumbed i missed it was happy for the big PR and third place finish. but its not terrible. ben missed the state record by half a second, running a 8:55 :) didn't even seem like he was in the race! i'm sure i can get the record. really grateful for this meet.
later i race the 800 meter in the medley event. so i warmed up 1.5 miles then got ready. my teamates did well and i was in third when i got the baton. one i passed easily the first 200meters then i passed the next guy within 150 more. first lap was a 1 minute. i really wanted to break two. but the next 200 meters i really slowed down and didn't run fast enough. one of the guys caught me with 100 to go and he slowly started to pass me and i started to give up, thinking he got me. but then i thought about all the times i've done that and how it happened to me at nike and i surged back! we were neck to neck for the next 50 meters then i started to pull away and beat him ~.05! my legs felt like jello and i thought in my head i had broken two, but coach told me it was a 2:02. but thats alright, i was still very pleased with this race because i didn't give up and that was probably on of my best finishes i've had. cooled down with chuk 1 mile.
overall great weekend! i'm a much better runner than i was a year ago. this is a great start to the season and i hope it goes by slow. i really think my goals are doable if i work hard enough, want it enough, and have confidence that i can do it. | 