Notes
I think I'm the only one on the team who likes this course. I ran with varsity as well as Matt and Talbot, because we were allowed to run 10 people in that race. It was really humid and kind of hot, but I was well watered. It was 11:15 when the race started. I wanted to run a slower first mile, as I felt that I'd been burning myself out, but it was a little fast, at 5:35. There was a dirt trail when we went into the woods that got really dusty and it hurt my eyes. Me and Matt were within 10 feet of each other until the beginning of the second mile. He pulled a little ahead as we came out and passed the finish line. We went into the woods a second time, and I could see Joe not very far ahead. I passed people in the woods by going on the inside some. When we went down the big hill, Matt and Joe were a little far ahead, but I caught back up after the creek. The creek was dry, as opposed to last year, when we didn't know about it and there was a lot of water. After the creek came the big hill, which many of the short kids struggled on, but it seemed a lot easier than last year, and that helped me out. Matt and Joe were somewhat close, and Coach yelled at me to catch Joe. As we came out of the woods for the last time, I passed him; it seemed like he was struggling. The open sun was hot and unpleasant as we went out into the big field. I could see Matt, and I was trying to figure out when to make my move, but I was only at 16:00 and I wasn't sure how much was left, as I'd never run this fast before in a race. I caught up a little, and I saw Coach screaming his head off at him when he passed. Coach encouraged me to pass him, with about 200m left, but I didn't kick hard enough or soon enough. The finish line came up, and we were separated by about 2 seconds. We stayed pretty close during the race, which was good. This was my favorite race so far last year, and I'm really glad of my time. The team got 2nd behind Oak Hills.
My PR this season on dirt was 19:09, road 19:00, and this course last year was 19:41. I finally broke 19.