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DI

February 11, 2014 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Indoors, cold, bright, slight winds outside

Comments:
The team had a fantastic day at the D.C. State Indoor Championships, with our girls finishing 5th of 16 teams. But us boys still finished second to Gonzaga like last year--by a margin of four points, however 99, 95. Griffin won the 3200m in 9:36, Aidan got 3rd in the mile with 4:31 and the 4x800m cruised to victory in around 8:43 with Boardman almost 100 meters in the lead. He also got second in his heat of the 500m, which was cool to watch. Simone also ran the smartest 800m I've ever seen--starting in last and pushing up through laps two and three, very Dave Wottle. As for my race, we got our spikes approved and the waiting began. Griffin, Zeke and I warmed up much too early and went into a holding pattern: sitting down for a little bit, then going out to their outdoor track. They called the final call for our race and we had to take off our warmups and put on our spikes over 30 minutes before running. We were the trapped next to the finish line on waiting around with our competition, watching the girls finish up and the first heat run. Zeke and I started in the far lanes and couldn't break until 50 meters in--a policy they didn't have last year. As the race began, I tried to stay calm and forget I had to pee and stop worrying about whether or not I had warmed up enough. My mouth was impossibly dry as we came through the first lap and I even tried to lick my lips during the race to deal with that. Hoyle and Griffin ran together at the front, with a pack of three just 7-10 meters ahead of me consisting of Wilson, and two Gonzaga kids. The team cheered more loudly and enthusiastically for a 3200m than I've ever heard and I definitely fed off their energy as we came through the mile, me in 5:09. I had gained a couple of steps on the Gonzaga-Wilson pack with Zeke close by. It started to hurt then, but I thought of my form and over the next two laps let them pull me along a bit. On lap 10, Boardman screamed at me that if I didn't go with that pack now, I never would. So on the back straightaway, I almost jumped ahead of them, not entirely confident of my move. Then I remembered what Eric Nelson said at the Nike camp, that when you make a move, you don't let up until you cross the line. I liked to think it scared them a bit and I strode the next few laps, maintaining form. With three laps to go, I thought we had 400m left, so still ahead of all three, I tried to kick but realized my miscalculation around the back straight. In the next lap one of the Gonzaga kids passed me, with just a bit more speed at the moment, though I tried to hold onto him. With 150m to go I kicked hard making some effort to catch him, but he wasn't coming back, finishing a little less than two seconds ahead; I almost lost some motivation but heard Gonzaga and Wilson's footsteps behind me. I closed with a negative split of 5:06, 4th with a pleasing PR. This makes me more certain of my goal for spring and I felt all those runs in the cold just starting to pay off. 5 minutes of strength work at home: 45 second scissor kicks, 60 crunches, 1:30 plank, 10 alternating supermen, 20 pushups.