directions_run Run • Oct. 9, 2024, 11:40 p.m.

I am so happy with how this race played out. Of course, add this to the list of near-infinite times someone didn’t feel their best before the race and ran fine anyway. (This seems like a skill that can’t be taught and it doesn’t look like I’m learning it anytime soon) Looking back, the last time I ran this course was Freshman year, September 28th, with a time of 20:04. Mile 1 The start was much smoother than at St. Charles but what I hadn’t anticipated was that being all the way on the right would get me boxed up against the line up at the hill. I spent this time sticking with the pack and it paid off greatly, my biggest weakness as a runner has been not getting out fast enough. Mile 2 Because there wasn’t any mile markers I wasn’t sure where mile 1 ends and mile 2 begins but after the tiny dip by the start of the mile repeats I got ahead of the whole group expect for Smith, who started walking at the hill. Mile 3 From that point on, it was a very long battle to pull ahead of the next sandburg guy and a comparatively short battle to catch a few kids at the 300 mark. I hadn’t thought it would have made as big of a difference, but doing the handicapped 300s (specifically at KLM) gave me a lot of confidence to speed up at that point. I pulled from 4th to 2nd turning the bend but one Sandburg kid barely beat me, literally .03 of a second. Overall I am super happy with this race. Final time was 16:39, 1st in frosh-soph and 3rd in the meet. This is another indicator that I was doing all the right things during the time I was out. While I stayed the exact same relative to everyone else at St. Charles, getting out faster and having more confidence definitely made the gap much larger. I’m really looking forward to conference with the confidence that I can come and make a difference for our team.