Race - Warmed up about 1.5 and got to the line. The gun went off and I sat back with Preston because I really wanted to use my teammates today to strengthen me. But, something deep down told me I couldn't sit back today. And when I saw that 4 Desert Hills guys were right at the front, I definitely knew I couldn't sit back. So I pushed ahead of Preston and caught up with Jake on the second lap and I threw in a strong push here and pulled closer to the leaders but there were still 4 DH guys in front of me and Jake and we were our 3rd and 4th guys at this point so I really had to focus and I give it all I had the last lap. And as we passed Coach he yelled at us that our 5th guy was way back and we would need every point. Jake started to pull ahead at this point throwing in his signature last lap but I was throwing in a good push as well. I caught Scott of DH at the beginning of the third lap and passed him. I caught Tanner (DH) and Andrew (my team) on the last uphill push before the finish and I was gaining on Sage of Desert Hills. As we came around the basketball court and into the final stretch, I was getting very close to Sage and I started into that final kick but I just couldn't get myself to go get Sage. I finished just a couple seconds behind him which was a huge bummer but still my best race of the year. And it turns out that my gut feeling at the beginning of the race was right. My team really needed a race like this from me today because we had quite a few guys way back with very poor races today. Luckily we had some people step it up today (like me and Jason) and we pulled off the win in a very tight contest that came down to 8 points. This race today just showed how deep our team is and that we've got guys who can step it up when we need them too. This is going to be big going into next year as it is going to be another close contest for the Region and Statefor that matter (as most of us are going to be running Varsity). I'm very satisfied with my performance but I'm more thrilled to have helped my team win it because that was really my only goal. Cooled down about 1.5 with Jake and Andrew and a few others as we watched the Varsity girls run a very good race and the Varsity guys also with a good race but not enough to beat the very good Thunder (congrats to their team on the Region title). My foot was pretty good today, not enough to bother me too much but not perfect either. Talked with Coach and he said I should take the rest of the week off (maybe more) to get it healthy again.
| 