You've got to want it to win it

This morning was full of a lot of last evers since this was my last college cross country race, ever.  About an hour before race time, we started our warmup as a team.  We ran about the last half of the course to refresh our minds and get a feel for any parts that had to be filled in last moment due to any of the rain from earlier in the week that hadn't cleared up.  We did our usual strides and drills, and then put on our spikes and headed over to the line.  We were in box 31, which was good because it put us towards the right half of the field.  After a few more strides, it was time to go.  The plan was to go out with Shaylen, but to get up to Jess, Andrea, and Sarah (who had been sick all week) before 2k.  Going out I felt like I had lost some of my warmup, so it was a struggle to get that back.  But I was able to stick with Shaylen pretty well.  Because the field was smaller than at pre-nats, it was a lot easier to get out together and not get lost.  But I was also very aware that I was at the back of the pack, because the field was really thin about where I was.  Shay and I kept moving up, towards Jocelyn to help her out, and then towards our other teammates.  I came through the mile in about 5:35, so a lot better then at pre-nats.  It was between the mile and 2k that I think Shay and I got separated, so I focused on getting towards Andrea, Jess, and Sarah.  When I caught up to them, Sarah and Jess stuck with me for a little bit.  Jess fell off, but Sarah was with me for pretty much the rest of the race.  There were times when one of us was a little ahead of the other, and times that we were running side by side.  Still, having each other within sight was extremely helpful.  And seeing pictures of the race afterwards, Andrea and Jocelyn weren't far behind either.  Around the 4k mark I heard Coach Mack tell me I was about 180th place.  I knew I would have to be able to move up a lot to get close to where the coaches said we could be last night in the team meeting.  Because I had gone out faster than at pre-nats, and this was a more talented field, I knew my chances of catching as many people in the last 2k were slim.  I just stuck with Sarah and we worked up together to keep passing people and gain any ground we could.  Around 1k to go we saw Mack again and she told us to catch 10 people.  I don't know if we did, but I just thought about picking people off one at a time.  But it was really difficult because everyone was giving it their all now, so a lot of my efforts went towards not getting passed.  I tried just kicking with Sarah and to make moves when she moved.  There were so many people down the finishing stretch it was crazy.  And so many people posting times so close to one another.  I finished in 168th place, 2 places and 1 second behind Sarah.  I scored 131.  Being able to be here as part of a team made the experience so much more meaningful.  Not like I would know from individually qualifying, but whenever I saw people there on their own I really appreciated my teammates and getting to share this experience with them.  It was working together in every workout and every race this season that made it possible.  As a team we finished 26th.  As our coach said to us afterwards, he could sense a little disappointment from us, but it was a good thing because it meant that we had gone into the race with goals.  From the team meeting last night, he had told us about the point range we would need to get below 20th as a team.  Given the illness that hit our team this week, and the novelty of the experience at nationals, we still performed well.  We cooled down 2 miles and then took a large group picture with all of our family members who traveled out to Louisville to support us.  While I wish the end results could have been a little better, I hope that this experience will serve as a chance for the coaches and returning team members to take as much as they can from it and be ready to do better next year.  Results from the race can be found here 

http://www.ncaa.com/ncaa-cross-country-championship-live-timing