AM: Easy three mile shakeout. A little bit quicker pace. Feeling good!
PM: Race! After my shakeout, I took an ice bath, then had a good lunch, and just relaxed at home until I had to leave. I had the race on my mind all day, but I didn't let it overwhelm me. Got to Davis High with about an hour to my race. I set down my stuff, then went on a two mile shakeout. I came back, drank some water, and then did a mile of speed changes (20 sec on/40 sec off). I was feeling good by this point, but felt like I needed to do some good strides before my race. I then took my stuff into the field, put on my spikes, and did some strides. I did maybe 8-10 good strides and hydrated one last time before going over to the line. The gun went off and I got a pretty crappy start. I was in the back of the guys in my waterfall, and at 400, which was a 62-63?, I think I might have been last, or close to it. Marcus moved past me and surged along the curve to the front pack, and I waited until I could swing around guys coming off the curve. I moved past a ton of guys, the majority of the guys in the race, and ran next to Marcus. We were on the heels of Ricky and Austin. From here I can't quite remember what happened. There was a lot of movement, and I had to fight to keep my spot. We were 2:07-:08 at 800, then 3:12ish at 1200. In this time I was ranging in the top 4 or 5. Kramer passed me with about 250 to go, and with 200 to go I surged past him on the inside, throwing a friendly elbow his way :D That gave me some adrenaline, and I moved past Marcus and Austin into 2nd. Coming off the curve I starting to kick as hard as I could, but someone came up on me and I didn't know who it was. It was Andrew from Bingham. He just barely pulled away from me, and I could hear Kramer right on my heels. That last 100 was a hell of a kick, and I could tell we were all going as hard as we could. Ricky stayed ahead of us, but we closed on him a ton in the last 300. We finished less than half a second behind him. Bill told me 4:15, but I am very pleased now that I saw my time on Runnercard as 4:14.61! Overall, a solid 1600. I actually had a bit of a taper for this race, and I knew that I'd crush 4:20. I focused on racing and fought well, now that I think of it. The only thing I would have done better was get a much better start, and kick just a little harder to hold off guys on my heels. I'm excited to race when I'm not at high miles!
I jogged around some more after my race and then elevated my legs while Bill iced them. After getting my medal, I cool down some with Bill, Sarah, and Chris, then stayed loose and hung out for a little before my 3200. I knew I wouldn't be feeling too great for this race, but I ran it primarily to see what I could do after a hard mile, and to sort of get used to racing hard back to back. After a mile warm up, I did some strides and then they called us to the line. The gun went off and I got a much better start than my mile. I was first in my waterfall, then like third once the two alleys merged. Honestly, I don't even remember what happened from here. Conner broke away and eventually Mike passed me. I sat on Mike for a long time, and then tried to surge past him, but he just passed me back when I did that. At that point I knew I didn't have much fight left in my legs. Somewhere in lap 7 he surged and I couldn't go with him. Chuk was sitting right on me and went with Mike. They slowly broke away from me and I just couldn't get myself to go. I finished in 9:36.09, which was meh.
The 3200 didn't go as spectacularly as it could have, but I'm not really disappointed. I went hard in the mile and I was able to hang on at least in the 3200. I'm really happy with the outcome in the mile, so overall I'm still content with this meet. More than anything, this meet gave me a confidence boost for next week. I'm going to get to race the two mile first, then have a day recovery before I have to race the mile! Which is a luxury compared to today. I got my medal, then went on a mile cool down before leaving. One more thing that this race made me realize, is how unbelievable Natalie was here last year. She won and set records in the mile and two, both of which went completely untouched this year by girls who didn't double in events. Wow.
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