Ah. Here goes nothing. Not my best work, but this is more for personal rememberance than public enjoyment.
PreRace: I was excited. I prepared pretty well and the legs got feeling good on the course preview the previous day. Our hotel was in eloy and it was sketchyas it gets. A semi ran into one of the telephone polls. We had no wifi, or telephone, or even power. Slept well, ate well (frosted flakes), prepared mentally, it was a pretty normal pre-awesome race routine. Things were good. Legs felt solid on the warm up, execeptionally good for so early in the run, although I was a tad impatient and started a little too soon. The pre-race stuff for the race was pretty legit too. I got my name announced and I talked a little with the guys in my box. I was pretty seriously prepared.
Race: The race went out so crazy fast. I was in dead last after 10 steps. I tried to follow the race plan and stayed as relaxed as possible while ignoring the fact there was a solid 100 meters of guys in front of me already. I found Cubby and Josh and Sage a little before the mile, which was good. First mile was about 5:05 although results say a bit slower. That shouldn't hace been a problem considering I've hit that pace consistently since state without a problem. For whatever reason I hit the mile and I was hurting a bit and I got concerned. Josh pulled away around here and Cubby slipped back. I knew I was slowing down (or at least not running as fast as I needed to). I did everything I could to push it like I had planned to. I expeted to feel like I did at state, a desire to just fly or even just the ability to start pushing it, but it wasn't clicking. I stopped passing and Sage stayed a little ways ahead. I came through the 2 mile and I was exhausted. Pace had slipped to 5:20 or a little faster, which isn't bad for the average 3 mile at elevation and thick grass, but this was Nike. I was on short golf course grass with the best in the region at low elevation, and I didn't have what I had had in most workouts since state. I stayed focus because that was the one goal I could still achieve, and that was the one thing I failed at at state. With .5 to go things came back a little and I tried to pull things together. In the end I didn't get outkicked, finished 135 and ran 16:23. It wasn't what I had wanted, and based on what my coach thought I should've been sub 16 at least. On the upside I beat Cubby for the first time, but I feel bad that he ran poorly. Workouts had been going so well, and its sad to have a relatively mediocre performance to show for it.
The rest of my thoughts: The cool down was nice. I had a nice chat with some of my box buddies. The ride home was long, but enjoyable. Honestly, when I finished I was glad I didn't have to race again. I figure I've raced a least once a month (April was more like 15 times) since January and I'm drained. I've got big goals for track, and I'm pumped to start building mileage again and doing wights and such, but I'm so toasty dead right now. My legs are battered, my mind is exhauste. School has gone downhill lately. I need to finally replace all those friendsh I lost to graduation last year. It's time for running to take a back seat for a little while.
Good bye, for now, Fast Running Blog world. I will be back when running calls to me again.
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