You've got to want it to win it

This morning after arriving at the course we walked the first mile to take a look at the part of the course we didn't run yesterday.  After that we still had a few minutes before it was time to warmup so we just relaxed and got mentally prepared for this race.  For warmup we ran along the 3rd mile of the course to see how it goes back to the finish; it is almost backwards of the 2nd mile but not on the same path.  Back at the starting field we had plenty of room to do our strides and drills since the guys race was going on.  After we did those we still had about 15 minutes so I ran around a little more before changing to my spikes and then heading to the line to do strides.  The officials kept saying 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes until the race would start... Since I didn't wear my watch this time I don't actually know how long it was but we were glad when they finally blew the whistle and shot the gun for us to begin.  My plan was to not go out hard up the hill or be the one to set the pace for the lead group if I ended up in position.  What I ended up doing was waiting until the top of the hill and then trying to catch up to the lead group, though for then it was just a large strung out group.  I finally caught them but then we had the downhill part and they broke away, and coming to the flat at the bottom of the hill which is just before the mile they had broken away and then there was a girl by herself and then me by myself.  My first mile was 5:50.  I kept my eyes up and focused on the girl in front of me and worked on closing the gap.  In the other pack I counted 6 girls so I figured I was in an ok position and after I caught the other girl I would have them to focus on.  At about a mile and a half I passed the other girl and then a girl in purple had started to fall off the lead pack.  I tried the rest of the race to close the gap and pass her.  Coming to the turnaround where we run back through woods and there is a mile to go, a girl came up to me and I really didn't want to get passed so I pushed really hard to stay ahead of her.  Then I realized it was Giselle when she said my name and then I stuck with her for a few strides but wasn't able to make myself go with her but I was glad to see that she was doing so well.  She caught the girl in purple and then I told myself I could do it too.  Then another girl came up to me and it was Andrea, again I tried to stay with her but then she passed me and went up to purple girl.  She passed the purple girl back and forth, and I actually came pretty close to both of them with 800 to go but then the purple girl broke away and Andrea and I pushed hard to finish strong.  I hated the rolling hills once you come out of the woods towards the finish and really wish they could just make that pat of the course curve to the side of them where there is plenty of flat ground :P  but there still is a good portion of flat after that where you can still get a decent kick in.  I finished 9th, Andrea 8th, and Giselle 5th.  :)  The way the meet was scored was weird because rather than just doing overall they made it complicated by doing dual scores between all of the teams.  But we beat everybody and calculated the scores for if they had scored it the regular way and we won by 2 points anyway :)  For cooldown we ran along the last 2 miles of the course and then up near the start while we waited for them to start the awards.  They announced top 10 in each race and we got little duffle bags :)  The girls ones are pink :)  I then cooled down a little more to be at 2.25 so I could at least finish with an even mile for the day.  I had hoped for 10 but we had to hurry back to the hotel :P  After I finished my cooldown Heather wrapped two packs of ice to my back.  No more plates with planks at lifting, I could definitely feel it today :P  The bus ride back was fun, and then it was sweet to watch the football team also claim a victory today :)