Notes
Beautiful day for a race! Not a cloud in the sky and about 50's when the race went off and not too bad from a wind perspective either. Going into this race wanted to break 37' and start off with about 90 sec laps. What a crazy race! Started off with an 80-ish first lap because I was excited and had just raced a 5k last week. Coach said that was fine giving me some extra seconds to play with. Knew I could slow down and settle down, but the next lap was an 86 and it didn't feel so bad. After that just kept clipping off speedy laps and was feeling pretty good. Came through the mile fast. At some point they announced that our RPI pack was leading (typical commentators always confused). Came through the 5k at around 17:45 (??, not sure they didn't announce it, but Mary said that and it sounds right). Definitely got harder the second 5k. It was tough to keep up a faster pace when I was already tired. Slipped to more like 87 pace. At one point coach said if I keep running 86's I could break 36 and I hadn't realized I was on pace for such a quick time. I knew I couldn't give up now because it might be my best chance to break 36 since I had already come so far in the race. I got excited and ran about 2 85's, but then was right back at 87's. Little frustrating but I knew I had to keep pushing. So helpful when the other girls were on the horizon and it gave me something to look at other than an empty track (those laps were easier to run and were faster). Last lap the announcer was so surprised just how far under the 38:25 LL record I was going to be! Kicked it in for another low 80 last lap!! (really didn't want to miss breaking 36 by a few seconds). Crossed the line and immediately asked coach for my time because I couldn't believe it. Great day! Great race!!
All in all I couldn't imagine a way that this race could have gone better. Honestly, I think if anyone had been in the race close to my time I would have just let them pace and assume that I couldn't do it alone and would have broken 37 like I had wanted and that would have been it. Can't wait to see what the rest of the season has in store!
Also, great day for everyone! So proud of our 10k squad crushing their fist 10k and both our teams winning Liberty Leagues!!!!