RACE REPORT: OUR TURN TO WIN

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was not looking forward to my race. I had spent most of the three hours in between my races sitting on a blanket, and talking with my friends and my coach. We watched AK eat a cold baked potato and just relaxed. There was a little problem because JS's shirt was stolen by a member of another team and they refused to give it back, although it did have her last name printed on it. She did get the shirt back after the meet once the coach threatened the team. They were going to have to do hills though in punishment for taking the shirt, which we thought was kind of funny.

About an hour before our race, JS and I began warming up, doing four laps. My legs were feeling very tired and I just wanted to sit down. I tried to change my outlook but it wasn't working. I didn't want to race the 1500m, it seemed like I had already done enough. There wasn't anything I could do to change it however, so I didn't tell my coach. He was already excited, because our team was tied for first, and I didn't want to disappoint him.

As we stood on the line, waiting for the gun to go off, I noticed that it had grown dark and the lights were on. Usually this is one of my favorite things about the race but it didn't really register with me throughout the race. All I could think about was how I wanted to get under 5:18 but how I probably wouldn't. I wasn't going to really pace myself though, I was just going to race.

I didn't want to start out too fast so after 3/4 of a lap, I was towards the back. As long as I didn't start out next to a girl in orange, whose team always fades back after taking a 15m lead on the first lap, I was going to be okay. My legs didn't feel very tired in the race but they didn't feel fast either. With two laps to go, I was around 2:30 and moving up. There wasn't a lot of groups, just one or two runners that were easier to pass.

With a lap to go, I remembered the advice from the coach of the girl in red in the 3000m. She said to make the last lap hurt and that's what I set out to do. There was two girls running together a little in front of me and my coach was yelling at me to pass them so I could score. With 200m to go, JS, those two girls, and I were all running together. Around that last corner, my coach (who must have ran across the field to get there) stood with the two coaches of the other girls. They were all screaming at us to beat one another as they were standing right next to each other. I thought this was kind of funny because they looked hilarious and it wasn't up to them anyways. It was the runners who had to finish the race. They weren't giving us any extra power or motivation that we didn't already have.

I moved ahead of the group with 75m to go, sprinting with all I had left. A girl in purple was slowly moving towards the lane ahead of me and I knew I had to try and get her too. There was a big gap between us and it seemed almost impossible to close it. At 15m from the line, she was still ahead of me but the crowd had faded from the sides. It was almost like having tunnel vision, I only heard myself saying "push it, push it". I could see her trying to go faster but only steps from the line, I passed her and took 4th. JS placed 6th, beating the two girls, and making us double scorers. My coach was happy with our finish and that we had scored. My time was slower at 5:23 and so was JS's time of 5:25. Our team won the meet though, which was pretty exciting. And 10 of the 125 points we scored were mine.

I ran a quick cooldown lap after the meet before taking pictures with the trophy on our two hour bus ride and eating french fries from Arby's. They actually have very good french fries, which are one of my favorite things to eat after a track meet. They made up for my slower races as did the trophy.

1500
4th- 5:23