Notes
I just want to recount this race, because it was the best thing I've ever been a part of. It was a rainy day, but the whole time leading up to it we were saying how we would make it our paradise. Things I remember: John almost fighting a kid from one of the Thorn-schools, john singing Heaven on the warm-up, one of Sandburg's top guys being unable to run. We all felt like it was our day, we knew we had trained the hardest, but we didn't even want to think about winning until after we ran. The race before we ran 8:10 so we figured we could probably hit the qualifying. Anyway, race goes off. John goes out hard; harder than he has all year and he's leading it. This is good for me because I want to be ahead. Anyway, John comes through 400 in the lead, but there are a couple sub-2 lead-off guys and after about 600 they catch John. They pass him, but John holds third about 10 meters maybe back at hand-off- he is about 2-flat. I go out, I don't want to make up ground right away so I go out a little conservatively, but I'm moving. About 300 I catch up to both Sandburg and Thornwood. I try to pass Sandburg's guy after 200, but he cuts off the move. I didn't go hard enough. Anyway, I just settled in behind him for the rest and held off Thornwood and hand off to Tom about 5 meters behind first. I was 2-flat-2:01. It's hard to determine official splits; Coach G said we were sub-4 through two guys so me and John both thought we were under 2 each. Back to the race. Tom goes out hard and catches the sandburg 3 guy pretty quickly and blows by him. He starts opening up the lead more and more and his kick was epic and by the time Joe got the hand-off, Tom was 1:59 and had a 15-20 meter lead. At this point, we think we have it locked up. Joe doesn't give an inch though the whole time and he's flying. However, Sandburg had Kyle Meyer and Thornwood had London Hawk chasing him (both sub 1:55 guys). We all see the lead narrowing after 1 lap. Around 200, Joe has about a 10 meter lead, 100 to go, Joe has 5 meter lead. About 30 yards from the finish, Kyle Meyer just about pulls even with Joe. They're both running stride for stride and about 5 meters from the finish, Kyle decides to dive for it or something. Maybe he tripped, I'm not sure. Anyway Joe crosses the line in first and Kyle's lunge leaves him 1 meter short of the finish. And he's dropped the baton... So Sandburg is DQ'd. Thornwood comes in right behind them in about 8:01-8:02. We're all going crazy. We thought we were sub 8, but the official time was 8:00:11 which is a just a blink past sub-8. Joe was approximately 1:57. It was a fantastic race and one of the greatest things I've ever been a part of and definitely one of the most satisfying things I've done collectively.