We stayed about 1.5 miles from the start, so I was able to sleep in for a long time and just run to the starting line as part of my warmup. I made sure to get another really good warmup (3.5 miles easy plus a bunch of strides so my heartrate was already up to Mach 10). There were 11 of us in the elite men's mile, the second to last heat of the morning (the DOG mile was last, and it was so funny to watch). They had about a dozen heats - all different age groups, a family fun run, then master's men/women and elite men/women, then finally the dogs. The field was obviously loaded. Jordan, who had crushed me the day before, had the same plans for a weekend double as me. Christian Hesch was there, along with some other guys who had run sub 3:45 1500m races recently. A first place prize of $500 for a mile brings out some talent. I knew I was in over my head a bit, but that's what I needed and wanted. The course is a point to point down State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. It's a net downhill of about 1.5% average. You can really roll fast on this course. We were running into a headwind, but it definitely wasn't enough to negate the downhill! The gun goes off and everyone is out like a freaking rocket! I'm pretty sure I'm close to last place after 100m (turns out there was one guy behind me). The main pack went through the quarter in 56 seconds, I came through in about 60 point something. I hit the half-mile in 2:03, and three-quarters in 3:07. They were calling out splits so I never looked at my watch. No one has passed me and no one has come back to me yet. Finally I started reeling one guy in and got him with maybe 200m to go. Then I set my sights on the next guy and really started making up some ground on him, but just ran out of room. A couple more strides and I might have gotten him... we were neck and neck at the finish line. I had 4:09.4 on my watch, and I asked one of the clock people at the finish line what my time was, and they confirmed the 4:09. Made sense, that's what I saw on the main clock as I hit the finish. Cool - I felt pretty good about that time even though I got my butt kicked. Four of the guys went under 4 minutes. But then when the official results were posted, they had me at4:12. There's a big difference between 4:09 and 4:12. I'm pretty darn sure that I didn't click the stop button 25m before the finish line! So now, if my time really was 4:12, I'm not so happy about it. It doesn't really add up - since I hit 3/4 in 3:07 and really felt like I accelerated in the last couple hundred meters. That would mean I ran a 65 second last quarter... I don't know... its all splitting hairs at this point. What's done is done. The race was hand timed, so I guess a mistake could have been made, who knows? Its a downhill race anyways so it doesn't even "count". Next year I'll just have to go back and break 4 minutes with room to spare! I cooled down 4.5 miles, back to the hotel plus some extra. My legs felt way too good during the cool down - to the point where it was frustrating! I did 6-8 hard & fast hill sprints towards the end of the run and felt strong. Middle distance racing is a whole different world. I just wasn't prepared to move my legs any faster, it takes some re-training of the brain. But I think I can run so much better at these shorter distances... I need to keep at it and work on my speed endurance and race tactics. It will come with more practice and time. As nerve wracking as these short races are, they are also really fun. I think if I ran this mile over again the next day, I could go even faster. I really don't think fitness was my limiting factor - instead it was a lack of intuitive knowledge about how to run the race, how hard to push (mental toughness?), when to make a big move, etc. Ultimately, having the confidence to take a big chance and know that you can hold that pace. Or just be reckless enough to try it! The rest of the day was great (especially since I had 4:09 in my head all day - I'm glad I didn't see the "official" results until later)... We had a awesome breakfast at IHOP (if I had just hit a Waffle House this weekend, it would have been the perfect trifecta), then toured the Santa Barbara Mission, went up to Solvang, and hung out at the beach. Nice to spend some quality time with my aunt and uncle. They are both coming out to Utah for a week in August. I flew back from Santa Barbara (the smallest airport in the world?) via LAX. I only had a 20 minute layover and naturally we got in ~20 minutes late. As soon as I got off the plane, I heard my name paged - "Salt Lake passenger Jake Krong, please report to gate 85, the door is closing." Great. Time for race #3 of the weekend... I took off and ran a very respectable ~600 yard dash through the airport, considering I had a backpack on and my shoes were untied :-) Needless to say, I made it! 
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