I felt bad until there was about a mile to go, but I had done so bad to begin with, even increasing the pace didn't help my time or spot.
It's most likely the worst race I've run since freshman year. But the new shoes are a huge difference, the shins don't hurt and I feel much faster. I should do much better in Tuesday's race, and there's no doubt in my mind that I'll be back to normal for the meet after that, on the 26th.
2. Tyson
3. Dan
4. Steele
5. Southbridge
6. Pat
7. Matrick
8. Jason
2. Tyson
?. Dan
?. Steele
7. Pat
8. Jason
I had looked at results from another race in the newspaper, and believed that we had a shot at beating Grafton. It turns out they had been resting a few of their good runners that day, so it wasn't close at all today.
Still, I ran hard to help get my team a double win. I had been chasing down two Grafton runners, with an Auburn runner in front of them. They didn't slow down at all and kept me working at it. I did catch up to them with less than a half mile to go, and stuck around, but with a quarter mile to go, they gained a little.
By the time I was on the track, I only had a shot at one Grafton runner. I gave it my best effort, of course, but my body didn't have as good a kick left as I needed. Perhaps I started the kick too late, and if I'd caught up to him around the last turn, I would have beat him in a contest of seeing who can take more pain in the last 50 meters. It didn't effect the results though, as the points weren't that close.
With a little more training, I might have had them at the end. Nevertheless, it was a good time and I finished 3rd for Oxford after finishing 6th and 5th the first two meets for us.
2. GRF
3. GRF
4. Tyson
5. GRF
6. Dan
7. GRF
8. AUB
9. GRF
10. GRF
11. Jason
What I did have wasn't all that terrible, and I was a big part in beating Quaboag, as I passed two runners in the last half mile or so, at least one from Quaboag.
As I finished the road section and went down on the grass next to the track, Coach was yelling at me to beat the two runners in front of me. The first one didn't give me any difficulty, and the second one beat himself. I was picking it up, but he didn't have anything left and it was relatively easy to pass him. After being maybe 30 meters behind him, I closed the gap to about 5 meters in a matter of about 50 meters of the course.
When we exited the soccer fields, he gained a little bit, and this is when I started running him down. I passed him easily and as I turned onto my 2nd to last turn, I started really going, and on the final stretch I went hard (as usual), and pretty much ran away from him. I turned around after finishing and saw that he had more than half of the final straightaway left.
16. Pat
17. Jason
Steele
Matrick
Cody
They got away a little more as we entered the track, but I started catching up to them on the back straightaway. I passed one at the start of the turn, the three of us sprinting all the way. I passed the other as we came out of the turn and the turn ended. One of them came up alongside me, slightly ahead as we approached the line. I leaned at the end, seemingly getting my shoulders across first, but the spot was given to the other runner.
9. Dan
12. Pat
14. Jason
18. Steele
I ran crappy.
How bad was it? My time from freshman year at Shepherd Hill's 3.1 mile course was just 8 seconds slower than my time today.
Dan
Pat
15. Jason
Matrick
2. Dan
4. Pat
5. Jason
11. Matrick
23. Dan
31. Jason
32. Pat
36. Matrick
38. Cody
On the way down from that hill I caught up to Pat and went in front of him. We ran side by side until we reached the driveway, when I started picking it up. I beat him for just the second time this season.
We finished 10th out of 11. If Pat had stopped talking for 20 minutes of his life, we would've beat Auburn. If Dan's legs weren't bothering him, we would've taken 7th.
28. Pat
51. Jason
64. Steele
68. Matrick
73. Cody
I really can't believe how stupid I was, but I know that I'll never let that happen again.
92. Tyson 18:49
95. Pat 18:55
128. Jason 20:38
129. Matrick 20:42