Since there had been no early morning practice and i was exhausted beyond belief from Tuesday, i was not able to get up to run before school. RACE DAY!! =D Started off by walking up to the track as soon as i got out from school and got ready to race. We all then got on the bus and left to our home course. The only problem i saw with our home course is the superlative fragrance given off from the horses at the start and finish lines. It is a rather repulsive smell and it tends to linger on one too... When it came to running my warm-up i went with the girls and we managed to run approximately a mile or a mile and a half. We kept going until someone told us we had five minutes before the start of the race. Since we had already done our cheer, we were able to make it on time and stay warmed up without wasting any valuable time. Once we were about to start, Bill noticed that there had been too many girls and that the starting line was just not wide enough for all 52 of us, so he extended the race a good amount. Right before the race, Bill mentioned to all of us that this particular race was one for fun and that really helped me. I was able to push my limits and the limits of many other girls to the point where i came out succeeding. About .75 miles into the race, the majority of our competition had begun to die off. Girls were dropping like flies and you could tell that they were really struggling. Once we hit the long, steadily increasing hill i began to hear people slow down immensely. I only pushed harder and harder until i reached the top of the hill and took it upon myself to pace myself using my watch and regain control of my breathing. I was able to catch the majority of my breath right around the time i saw my coach Bill and he told me to catch up to the Bountiful girl that was right ahead of me and pass her. Shortly after, i succeeded and she didn't put up a fight. I then caught up to my teammate Josephine and ran with her until i passed her. Unfortunally, i slowed down a little too much on the slick downhill and she caught up to me. Once the downhill was behind me, i began to gap her once again but then i came across the most annoying cyclist and just would not get out of my way!! She ended up catching up to me and we ran together for the majority of the race. I got to the point where i could not keep up with her when we were about 20 ft away from taking a right, right where the trees were. She began to out kick me and i ended up a few seconds behind. Overall, it was a really good race! It felt amazing to get out there and do so well! It paid off, even though i could hardly walk before the race and afterwards i was completely stiff and Natalie was too! Fun Race!! |