Got to the race and warmed up 2 miles total. Stomach was a bit full but not too bad. Right before the race my knee started bothering me, but I wasn't gonna use that as an excuse. Probably should've had a little more warmup cause it was cold but oh well.
The start was a bit rushed and it was kind of like "oh we're supposed to go now." I was with just guys heading to the road we turned onto. Stuck with Bill until the turn onto the trail where he gapped me a bit. At that point I felt fine I was sort of just saving cause I didn't want to go out hard and crash bad. My legs were numb though because of the cold (the high today is 34) which may have helped a bit cause I just wanted to get done. Going along that path the girl Bill pointed out to me as an ex BYU runner passed me, I should have gone with her but I just let her go. I was good with the pace I was at and was worried I'd push too hard in the first half. Dropping to the pond and going around it I kept working but not necessarily surging. Going through the forest thing there were tons of sharp S turns and that slowed me down a ton, on the last one I was almost at a stop and had to surge real quick to pick it back up. Surged a bit coming out and up the hill, probably the first time I ever just told myself to attack the hill and not let it slow me down. At the top of the hill my core was just burning and had to take a few deep breaths and tell myself to keep pushing. I wasalmost done and could see the finish off in the distance. Took me a minute to recover and start pushing again, got to the final stretch and knew I was gonna get a good time, I had worked hard. Finally started kicking (after a few of Bills yells) and finished with 18:40, a PR for both a 5k and a 3 mile.
There were a few things I could have done better, I could have stuck on Bill and worked with him, he and Jakob weren't too far ahead of me. Might've been nice to work with someone instead of by myself. I could have gone with the girl (She ended up winning, I was second overall women). I'm not sure what her time was. I could have pushed myself through the top of that hill and worked through the pain better and kicked sooner and harder. I could have even started a bit faster. But I am very happy with how this race turned out, it's given me a huge confidence boost. Finally had a good race (and I needed one, especially after the past couple races - State included). This means Arizona is gonna be amazing.
Cooled down a little under 2 miles.
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