Notes
WARNING: LONG
This race wasn't perfect, but all in all, I'm proud of it and it's my best yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it was slightly short, but it wasn't a super easy course either, so I think it balances out pretty well. No matter what, I do believe it was my best performance to date.
I was fairly uncomfortable the whole time, but that's how I wanted it to go today. I've been taking the first couple of miles too easy in the past few races which is good for strong finishes but not the best for overall time, I'd say. Unfortunately, got shoved into the thorns on mile 1 and lost at least a few seconds there, which made mile 1 a little uncomfortable since I had to work back up. Mile 2 featured the biggest hills, so that one was tougher but the effort was good. Mile 3 was a pretty easy mile terrain-wise but at that point it was pick-up time. Mile 4 I was definitely working. Last bit I was working and hurting but kept it together and had a decent finish.
Meh I'll write more later, got a lot of mental debriefing to do, gotta go eat dinna with fam
ALRIGHT BACK
Alright so as far as the race went down, I guess there's not actually too much to report aside from above. I mostly ran with Brian the whole time, which was awesome. I took a good chunk of mile 2, he led most of the next 1.5 (you da man Brian), I got him back within 1 and told him to go with me. We were much harder from the start and really pushed the entire way with a still faster second half. Normally we're a lot more conservative so I think we really benefited from having each other seeing as we were both running out of our both strategic and physical comfort zones.
Great team performance today. Tightest pack yet, fastest team time yet. Great to see Sean running where he should be, great race there. So happy to see Brian running consistently well again, because he's a smart racer and very talented and deserves to be up there. Aldous is getting faster each race, Fazio with a killer kick, and HAMMARMAN absolutely crushing it. Naturally, Jake and Bobby killing it up front. I believe our best top 8 took the top 8 spots today, which is always something you want to see. 2 MORE WEEKS.
SO PUMPED FOR REGIONALS. I'm still running at almost 70 this week. 10 or more off the next two, and I'm going to be ready to run fast as SHIT.
Also definitely a little something funky with results... LOOKS LIKE if you finished in the same second as another runner, the places were, as far as I can tell, randomly messed up. For instance, the Union runner who also ran a 26:13 beat me but is listed behind me. Similarly, 2 guys ran 27:40 with Rob and they're placed in front of him, though he doesn't think anyone was there. Mildly interesting?