A.M. Did a short version of the long run before the track meet today. Ran into Jeff Gagen, and he joined me. I paced him through an 8 mile tempo run on the way back in 48:28, around 6:03.5 average. About half way through I told him about Lasse Viren, Be Still My Soul/Finlandia, the Finnish word "sisu", Ether 12 in the Book of Mormon, and then combining all of the above persuaded him to run all of the 8 miles to my house at that pace. He found some "sisu" and made it. Late A.M/Ealry P.M: Track meet at UVU. Benjamin ran the 1500 in 4:35.0 with the splits of 72.7, 74.1, 75.1, and 52.7 for the last 300, which is 70.3 400 pace. No state record today, missed it by 5.6 seconds. Combination of wind and running alone. Nevertheless, he got an official 1500 meter PR and won the race by more than a minute. I am happy that he won the race, but I am not happy that again he had nobody to run with for any duration of the race. That is the nature of racing in his age group at least in Utah. Kids start running for a high school or a junior high and stop coming to USATF track meets. Unfortunate, but not unfortunate enough for us to just surrender to the system. There is competition at the national level in such meets, and there are adults to race in road races. And once in a while we fight windmills by trying to set a record in what ends up essentially being a time trial under adverse conditions. This is a good way to learn mental toughness, and if we actually get the record, there will be an extra bonus. Benjamin's performance today, however, gives me hope that given some oxygen and somebody to follow in Eugine he could tuck in behind the guys that are running a low-9:00 in 3000 and make it to 2000 or so. Then if he could just hold on and run something respectable like a 3:20 for the last 1000, and finish in 9:30 low or even a little under, I would be quite happy. And it would be an official Utah State Youth record, although Josh recalls running 9:20 at the age of 13 in Florida in the national USATF championship, but for some reason that performance was not registered as the Utah record and I cannot find anything official online. Joseph ran 3:05 with the splits of 89 - 96. He was running well until a Bantam boy in the same heat passed him. Then I think he mentally just could not deal with it. Jacob opened courageously in 94, but it might have been too fast - he faded and finished in 3:16. Julia and Jenny I think were both affected by the heat - the temperature got to 82 degrees. Julia could not get going and opened with a 98. She held the pace, finishing in 97 for the second lap with 3:15.8. Jenny started ok - 44 seconds, but then I think she was just not handling the heat and the competition emotionally and slowed down to 51 with 95 for the first lap. Then she sped up a little with 48, and finished with a 45 200 - 3:08.9, and missed the qualifying mark which I though she had pretty much in the bag after her 2:57 time trial. Well, she'll try again. I jogged around 0.5 warming up with Joseph and Jacob. | 