You've got to want it to win it

Some of the distance girls went up to the North Summit Invite today.  It was supposed to be yesterday but got postponed due to weather.  I was the only girl in the 2 mile so I did 6 laps warmup on the track by myself, and then I got my spikes and headed to the line for my race.  There were 3 other girls in the race, but they were doing the 3200 and I was doing the 2 mile, so my starting line was further back than theirs.  There were some people who wanted to run the guys and the girls together but they couldn't because I was doing the full 2 miles and going for the record.  But I wouldn't have wanted to run it with the boys anyway since it was an invite.  I did my drills and strides by the line, they weren't sure what they were doing so it took them a while to get organized.  Finally they were able to get us some stickers that they wrote numbers on (which they didn't collect anyway :P)  but then they lined us up.  I was on my line and the other 3 girls were up at the regular start.  The officials weren't very loud so I really had to pay attention to know when to line up.  In the first 100 meters I caught right up to the other 3 girls and passed them right away.  The far side straight of the track had a bit of wind but it wasn't too bad.  All around the track people were cheering for me, which was awesome.  All of Park City's team was cheering for me too haha, I heard someone singing 'Oh Susannah'...  I tried to listen to my times at the regular starting line because I figured that might be easier, so when I got there after my first lap I was at 1:17.  After the second lap I was at 2:36.  After 4 laps I got my split at the mile (not the finish line) and that was a 5:33.  I knew I was really going to have to hold on so that my splits wouldn't be too slow for me to break the previous 4A state record of 11:29.  My stomach was not feeling too great but I was still on pace to go for the record and I wasn't going to give up, this was my only chance.  On the curve going into the final straight I could hear Natalie yelling "Every second counts!" to me which really helped.  My goal for the finish was to push the last 600 so I tried to pick it up there.  Hearing Natalie yell the same thing at me again as I was on my last lap coming down the final stretch helped me to go to my toes to kick it in.  And I got the record by 3 seconds!  And at a higher altitude too, also still being a little bit sick but improving each day.  Afterwards I did a mile and a half cooldown on the road.  

Later when it was getting to closer to time for the mile (not the 1600, I was going to go for a state record again) I really was not feeling good.  I called Bill and he said that I should do it to see if I could help Natalie qualify for state.  I warmed up on my own, out a mile and back on the road, and was just trying to make sure that I wasn't feeling bad enough that I wouldn't even be able to run the mile.  There were a lot more girls in the 1600, and there was a North Summit girl who was going to run the mile with me which was awesome :)  We barely heard the official as he was telling the other runners to step to the line.  As we were almost to about 100 meters in the race there was a false start, though we couldn't hear a gun so it was just people yelling at us to stop and there was a lot of confusion.  The clock apparently had not started :P  They lined us up again and sent us off but then at about the 50 meter mark they called us back again.  Third times the charm because that time it worked.  Erica, the North Summit girl, had a quicker start than I did.  We both had to work around the pack in the first 100 meters since we had started behind everyone.  I was not feeling for the right speed so I wasn't able to move up like she was but she held an amazing lead, and Natalie was in second, and she was able to get a gap on the pack.  I just steadily moved up throughout the race, my 2 lap split was in the 2:40s and then I kicked down the final stretch when I saw a girl's shadow moving up closer to me but after I kicked she didn't stay with me.  I finished in 5:37.02 and was just glad to be done.  Erica got the state record for her division though which was awesome :)  Afterwards I did a mile cooldown on the road again.  Then we were on the car ride home and that's when we found out we were supposed to do the 800 as well... Oops, oh well.  I doubt I would have been able to pull off a good 800 anyway.