Notes
Interesting race. A whole bunch of guys sprinted out to the first turn and then put on the brakes and ran like a 38 second first 200 and I ended up getting bumped around at the very back of the pack. Ridiculous. I moved up on the back straight into 3rd worrying that it might cost me some energy to run around the whole field so early but not willing to stay at the back at this slow pace. I was hoping to go out in close to 72 and it ended up being 78. Luckily, a couple guys up front kept it pretty honest through the mile and were very near 5:00 for the first split despite the ugly first loop. After 5 laps the guy from Warner Pacific that was leading slowed way down so that he did not have to lead anymore. Since I wanted to run 72s anyway and we were doing like 75s I decided to go ahead and take the lead with about 7 laps to go. The next mile was fast and by listening to the coaches and spectators it seems like I may have created a decent gap. With 1200 to go I was hurting. I could feel myself coming back to the race and was basically waiting to be passed and convincing myself that 2nd or 3rd was alright. However, with 200 to go there was still no one there and Kelly yells something like "only 200 just push". I gave what I had left and surprisingly felt better when I tried to tighten up my form and drop the pace down. I ended up winning by a couple seconds. Kelly, Diep and Tim were great to have out there giving splits and encouragement. Also, saw Jonathan Riley there before the race, which was cool. Then with like 5 laps to go I am pretty sure I saw Vin Lanana on the turn near the homestetch.