Notes
National Championships, 58th. Wet and sloppy course conditions. knowing that the first turn was sharp I didnt want to get pinched in so i took off at the start. I was leading the field at around 300m before getting caught. I dont think I over did the start although it might have looked like it, once I was in the pack i was in part two. I sat around 15th-20th place through the first mile. Troy fell right in front of me on a turn around 1200m in so I knew I would have to cover some points if he couldnt recover well enough. We went through the two mile in 9:30 and I was getting passed by groups of people. I tried to stay engaged and compete but i wanted to remain patient; as long as they didnt slow me down or cut me off I knew i could go past them later in the race. after the 5k The pain from last week started to creep in. my breathing suffered drastically. at one point I heard that olaf had 5 in front of me while i was running as our 3rd, and around the same time La Crosse's 2-3-4-5-6 guys passed me. Fuck. Things were not looking good to say the least. The pain only got worse. I was leaning and I couldnt get any air into my lungs. It was tremendously worse than last week and instead of dealing with it for the last 400m i had 2.5k to push through. I was fading hard going into the last mile. Troy and Plank both passed me together as we went around the first big turn. I tried my best to cover and run with them but my body was dying on me. I pressed on each step sending a shooting pain through my torso. I passed olaf's 5th man just before we rounded the pond and all i could hear was al yelling, "every point counts!" I was determined to make sure he stayed behind me as I started my agonizing kick to the finish over the last 500m. I dont know where I passed the 4th olaf guy but I dont know much of what happened in the final moments of the race. I was suffering more than I ever have in a race before, after I realized I was getting rammed up the ass by people I don't usually lose to I put all my personal pride aside. my mind was blank for the most part, all except the memory of thinking of how I could have done more last year, just two points. in the kick I laid all my cards on the table, I knew that once I crossed the line I could die a happy death but not before then. I was passed by 6 people in the final 100m and regained all but 1 as I lunged across the mats. I slid on the mud and was kneed in the back of the head by a guy behind me as I traveled 6 feet on my back/side. I laid on my side reaching my hand out to grab a handful of snow. I clenched the snowball tightly against my rib cage as Taylor tried to get me to my feet. I couldnt stand up straight so i laid in the mud for a while before making it to the medical tent. travis came to check on me. He said we "fucked their 5th man" implying that we had won but I was still writhing in pain and didnt quite comprehend. I later found out that their 5th man had faded all the way back to 116th, we put 7 in front of him. I still could hardly move but Troy, Plank and I walked back to the tent to get our stuff when we heard we had unofficially won. I was still being propped up by troy and turned to him and said I'm not falling for than again. When we got the official word we all embraced and cheered. I was more elated that I hadn't cost the team a title than actually winning it. of course I was happy, this had been the best team I've ever been a part of for many reasons, but I felt that I had let them down at the same time. It wasnt until talking with the coaches and having bus talk that the message was finally clear. We won because we didnt give up. They lost because their 5th man packed it in. NCC: 7-12-44-46-58-74-79 (130) Olaf: 1-9-14-47-116 (143)