Notes
Grindfest, 3rd Place. Felt fine on the warm up but once the race started my legs were feeling a little heavy, or off, I couldn’t tell but I thought the longer I went maybe I could find a decent rhythm. Spent the first 35-36 laps in lane 3 so the overall distance is much longer than the final outcome. I had travis just behind me most of the run and I knew I would have him to push me late. The pack seemed the hold strong for much longer than the past few years and there were quite a few times where I was feeling rough and wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep grinding. I took it one lap at a time but around lap 20-22 I was not enjoying myself. Soon after the pace was around 1:25-1:26 per lap the group practically blew up. When Terry Witowski and Joe Stilin dropped I knew the end was near because once they called it I could not hear and foot steps behind me. I waited another couple of laps for the final grind. We made it further than any year has before with 5 guys vying for the win. I was just happy to make final grind so the pressure seemed off once it was called. I found a little bit of life but I had been struggling for so long that I wasn’t confident I could do anything. Travis started to move with a lap to go and I didn’t have the stomach churning feeling of last year but my legs felt dead. I made one big push on the back straight and found myself in the lead and pushing for more. On the last turn I had no one ahead of me as the finish came into sight but out of the turn but when I went to push one more time my legs were not responding. I was passed in the final 20m by the eventual winner, Tai Dinger (recent Stanford Grad, 1:49/3:44 guy, was 10th at club Xc last weekend) I kept pressing to the finish and let up past the wrong finish line and Dewey slipped past me as I was decelerating. Pretty happy with the day considering I wanted to drop out earlier than any year before but having Travis there to have a familiar body there kept me engaged. My official finish Distance was 11.5, however since I ran 85% of the race in lane 3, I feel that a .2 adjustment is fair.