Today was the UVU Invite. We went over at about 9am and got there just about when the boys mile was starting. It was a one day meet so it went by really slow and we didn't end up running until about 3. We did a 1 mile warm up, I was planning to go about a mile more on the warm up but we weren't sure when they were going to call us to the bullpen. They did the heats fastest to slowest and I was in the second heat so I got to watch Brigham race just before me. He ran a really good race and won with a low 1:56.
Our race was really weird. They packed 20+ kids (with bad race strategy) into our race and they lined us up like it was totally randomized, so even though I had the 12th fastest time in my heat I was third from the inside on the first stagger and even though Jaren had the fastest time, he was about ten places over from the inside on the first stagger. The gun went off and I thought I had a pretty good start because I was ahead of everyone in the first couple of lanes so I hugged the inside, but the first stagger had about 12 people so runners from the outside lanes were cutting in after about 10 or 20 meters so I got boxed in really early. I literally could not move anywhere the first lap so we finished the first lap at about 63/64. I thought it would thin out a little more but it didn't so I started passing people on the outside on the turns because there was no other way I was going to get around them. I couldn't do much on the back stretch because one runner from Pleasant Grove would glance over his shoulder and mirror every move Jaren or I made and again I was forced to pass on the outside of the last turn. The home stretch was so congested so I moved out to lane 3 or 4 and passed a lot of kids, including the Pleasant Grove kid (serves him right). I ran the second lap at about a 62/63 and still had a lot of energy left over.
I still PRed by .01 seconds but it was a really good learning experience for me for these bigger meets like BYU and state that I need to get out fast and not hug the inside, but run more on the outside of lane 1, and also that I need to run more aggressively and make sure no one gets away with doing what the Pleasant Grove kid did. | 