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DCCXXXVIII

November 29, 2014 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: 40s, sunny, slight winds

Comments:
We departed from the hotel after breakfast at 8:30 and watched Frankie, Sam and Erkin. By the time Anthony, Mark and Cori were racing (these first two running 16:56 and 17:36!) we already had to warmup. Nobody said a word for the first 10 minutes, probably because we all had a lot on our minds after the team meeting last night: Sam Freeling and the weight of all our GDS running predecessors. After a three-minute tempo to fully loosen up, we had made it to the line and I felt as though I'd had too much breakfast. Trying to push that out of my mind, I asked for some gloves, but otherwise raced in only the uniform. I was afraid that once the gun went off, that whole championship mentality Anthony kept telling us to have would disappear. Once again, I wanted to run nowhere near Jackson, but knew better than go out near Tristan and Aidan. I found myself running just a little too relaxed and after 500m, Jackson was next to me as usual. I was feeling pretty good, getting into a rhythm and found room on the edge to work around people. First mile 5:20. Mentally I don't know what happened from there, but I fancied myself entitled to a PR and, although running the hill pretty well, still slowed down in the the second mile (11:00). At least no one passed me after the mile mark. Trying to think positive things, my third mile actually felt good and may have been the only reason I ran faster than at DC/MD, but like sophomore year I was just not hurting enough, finally getting ahead of Jackson with 600m to go and passing several people, but inevitably seeing the clock, realizing that it was all in vain. I told Anthony I had a lot of mixed emotions, but upon further reflection that's not really true: I felt sad high school cross country was over and not content with my last race. In other news, Katherine ran a new school record of 18:33, the girls got 19th, ahead of visitation and we 20th. A mere 4-second PR to show for a year of work is pretty humbling. So I'll have to make up for that in the 3200m. I finished this season with 36 leaves.