You've got to want it to win it

This morning I went for a mile and a half shakeout run.  I stretched my calves when I turned around at halfway since they were tight, but as usual they felt better after stretching.  Excited to race tonight!!!

Just under an hour before my race I started my warmup.  I did laps around the football stadium and then went in onto the field to do my strides and drills.  Then I went and changed into my uniform (my warmup clothes were drenched because of the humidity!) and grabbed my spikes and went over to the checkin spot.  I took a Gu, which my sister and I finally restocked up on this week, and then put on my spikes.  The officials then walked us over to the track where we had to wait under some tents until a few more laps of the guys 5k happened.  When they finished we were allowed to do strides.  We had a good few minutes for this since because it is regionals they have to stay on the same schedule as the other region.  I was in the second alley, and had sticker 23.  Someone else must have scratched since there was someone with a higher number than me!  Going out I quickly moved to the inside of the alley behind the other girls.  It went out fast!  The first 200 was 35, and at the 400 I was at 74 (also at the back of the pack) but I knew that soon girls would fall off so I wasn't going to panic!  I was right, and as we entered the third lap (splitting 800 at about 2:33) I passed some of the girls back and forth for a bit.  The first mile was about 5:14 so not bad.  Finally I was able to break some of the girls I had been passing back and forth, and one that fell off of a pack, but then pretty much the rest of the race I was running in no man's land behind a pack of 7.  My best chance to catch them probably would have been right then, but because they were so far up I told myself to be patient.  This has worked for me before, but in this situation I think it might have been better to throw in a speed change to get them while I was breaking away from the girls behind me.  I could still hear Kep yelling out 81 for my splits so that was good.  But gradually I would slip and then realize I needed to be pushing, so from there my splits fell.  With 4 laps to go I was at 11:40 so knew I would really need to work to get a 5:20 and go under 17!  But that didn't happen.  I wasn't gaining or losing on the pack in front of me, and when I had 2 laps to go I got lapped by some of the girls on their final lap.  I think I was going faster than them, but that doesn't do any good when you are a whole 400 meters back!  And then I wasn't sure if I was supposed to move over to lane 2 so they could pass?  Anyway at that point there were just 2 of them, but then a girl was coming up on me when I had 500 to go, and I let her go thinking that she was finishing, but then when I realized she still had a lap to go it hit me how dumb that was.  I didn't even kick that hard on my last lap, and I think it might have been as slow as 85.  Definitely didn't break 17, but I was happy for not getting dead last!  Afterwards I cooled down 2 and a quarter miles on the little practice track by the lacrosse field.  My right quad hurt during that so when I finished, Tim worked on that and my hamstring.  I iced it when I got back to the hotel.  Also I talked to Kep a little bit after the race, and brought up the idea of doing 400s at faster pace and just have race pace be for longer stuff like 1200s.  Obviously I didn't die after the first lap being a 74, but since my times have been going downhill all season I think I need to get in some faster 400s... so that the race pace feels easier in comparison.  So we'll see what workouts he comes up with the next few weeks.  After getting back to the hotel I went out with the team to get fro yo and we had a great time :)