Notes
Not the best run. Did I prepare well? No. Did I know this was going to be kind of a struggle? Yes. Was I arrogant in believing that my team would win no matter what? Absolutely.
I ran extremely inconsistently over the past two weeks and then yesterday I ran >10miles and then stood around all day in the cold. Then I stayed up until past 2 drinking beer and woke up with something of a sour stomach. So I didn't eat before the race and also warmed up poorly.
That said, I did well for the first mile, running a comfortable 5:27. Then I was running (slowly) in no-man's land for the rest of the race and ended up getting the fourth place that I was running in the whole time.
What did my poor preparation cost me? Our team lost by 2 places or 11 seconds; I am not sure which they used to place the teams, but if it was the time, that was definitely on me (I was first among all team members, so if it was by place, that wasn't my fault). I should have easily been able to beat the third-place guy, getting an apple pie for myself and a team win. On the other hand, this was put together on a whim and very last-minute so I can't expect too much, especially when running seems to have dropped on the priorities list.
Piss poor preparation prevents peak performance.