Didn't get a great warm up in.. but I still felt ready to go by the time we lined up.
RACE: The start was horrendous. I'm not very good with my elbows, and it seems that every other runner girl in the world is, so I was super squished and I was stepping on people everywhere. But when we hit the loops, I got out around the crowd and for the entire first mile I was passing girls all over the place. It made me a little nervous, cause I knew that the first mile is the easy part and I didn't want to start too fast then not have anything for the next two miles. But I remembered that last year the hills were where I passed everyone, and I figured it would be a good idea to get in a good position, then continue to pass people on the hills. And it worked out just greatly. On the switchbacks, everyone just suddenly died and I passed 6 or 7 girls right there. Then I knew I'd have to keep it up, because last year everyone I caught on the hills passed me back on the downhills. So I kept the pace over the top of the hill and down, even though my legs were dying. On the crossover, Coach told me that I was in 21st place, and to catch a few girls. So I did, on Poopout hill, getting into 17th or 18th place.. but then three girls caught me on the downhill. On the way up Reservoir hill, I passed a girl or two, but I was still in like 20th ish place. I really didn't think I'd have very much left for the finish, but when I hit the Gauntlet, I could hear all of our freshmen and sophomores cheering for me, and it helped a ton. I ended up finishing 17th.
Mia and I got a pretty excellent cool down in trying to catch up to Coach, and then cheering for Stoner and Michael. We were all over that course. Anyway, as for the race, I was happy with it, and it was a 42 second improvement over last year's time, so that's pretty good. Good way to end my XC career at PV. | 