Notes
Personally, I think we needed to be a little more locked in for this one. Even though we didn't want to put a whole lot of emotional energy, but at the same time this is still a meet we want to perform highly at. And I am guilty a little too, I went to the bathroom mid-warmup. After we got to the line we did our buildup and more strides and we were ready to go.
Gun goes off and I get out in a great spot. When we got about halfway to the first turn we slowed up a bit and let like 12ish Bradley guys pass us. We wanted to get out conservative. Dalton and Caleb were right by my side. After about 3k I think we started to build up and pass some guys. I started to pull away from Caleb at 4.5kish, and then from the 3 mile marker to the 5k mark I decided to pull back and reattach with him. Then I raced with Caleb until the back loop by the soccer nets. After that I just built upon the pace that I already had. There were 3 Bradley Bradley guys ahead of me going into the last k. I caught up to them before we turned to finished and surged right by them. Chapman said something like, you're just a D3 guy, you shouldn't be here. Then Bradley coach was going nuts saying that they could go 123. I finished strong but no where near my top gear. One of the Bradley guys got me at the line, which I know isn't good because that's why I wasn't an all-American last fall, but I am not going to go to the well for this meet. My favorite part about the race was catching Bradley's 2 and 3 and moving right by them as they were straining and trying to hold on.
If we would have a different gameplay for this race, there is no doubt in my mind I could've ran with the winner from the gun and beat him. This race was comparable to the five season's 8k I did on the fourth. I solid effort, but I just had a ton of fun with it and didn't pour much into it.