Woke up at 5:30 and we drove out to Mesa at 6:30 only to find out that my race was at 9:00. I just slept in the back of the car for two hours then started warming up about twenty minutes before the 10k started. I did some strides then lined up in the front by a kid that was wearing a Corona Del Sol jersey, and another guy who said that he was from Utah. It was a pretty big race and had probably about 3000 people running it. The gun went off and After about 100 meters I was in about 6th place. There was a group of about 5 guys that separated from everybody and about 800 meters in a pack of 5 guys came up with me. We just ran together through the next couple of mile markers which were supposed to have clocks at them but didn't, so I had no clue how fast we were going except for that we were hauling. At the 5k marker we had dropped one of the guys and had passed one of the guys who had gone out with the lead pack, and we came through in the 16:30's somewhere. The next 2 miles I kept trying to drop this one kid but he would always come back. We hit the 5 mile marker and started to really pick up the pace on a slight downhill. The last 400 meters were in a park and once we got there it was down to three of us in a battle for fifth. We came around the final turn and on the last little hill before the final 100 meters I just died and the two other guys pulled ahead and I just couldn't match it. In the end I was seventh in 33:46. I came in hoping for somewhere around 35-36 minutes so I was very happy when I saw the time was under 34. Afterwards I cooled down and waited around for the awards ceremony, then headed back to get ready for Thanksgiving! | 