Notes
States meet at Hamilton. Tough course and very muddy and windy. Subpar race but I suppose considering the past two weeks, it's not terrible. Team had a good finish despite some weaker performances (mine being one of them), so that's definitely encouraging. Just have to keep stepping in the right direction, slowly but surely.
Very messy start but it was more aggressive than usual on my end, though I still think there's work to be done there. I'll admit I felt a little flat for the first two miles for once, but I started to get into the swing of things on the third. Things were looking up by the time I got to 3, and I thought I was going to piece something nice together, but about halfway through that mile, the hamstring started to flare up. It wasn't terrible but it made accelerating difficult and definitely held me back. The last mile was rough on it, couldn't get going like I wanted/needed to and had to let some guys go, including Brian and also Steve for a bit. Guiltily kicked past Steve at the end for some 7th man pride but overall, sucky finish where I have been strong typically.
Overall, though, no major concerns. Hamstring is years past where it was in the past 10 days or so, so just more work work work work on it. The mud and the cold definitely didn't do it any favors, but I know I'll be ready to roll next week. I can take consolation in the fact that I alone didn't cost us the title... SLU had a great day and we would have needed some killer performances all around to take them down. Major props to Steve and Brian, great to see Brian able to string together a full race again and the Hammarman has ice in his veins. Within 25s of a PR on that course? DAMN. Robert with a strong race too.
Tarnished my 27-free record, haha, but no contest the best I've ever performed in a championship meet. Would have liked better, but on to the next one... the more important one. Looking for BIG things!