Pictured: A very tired me.
Last Monday, I started running cross-country for the nearest town's team. It's exhausting and tough, but I'm holding up fairly well, and my coaches like my performance.
I also ran my new fastest mile ever (it was during mile trials, where I really shouldn't have been going so hard, but oh well) at 6:24 or thereabouts. My old record was set like ten months ago, so I was about due for another.
And on Thursday, we had our first meet. (You can find the results here). It was hot.
However, our only JV 5K runner won his race solidly, our best JV 3K guy got third, and our #1 Varisty girl won her race by about four and a half minutes. Our #1 guy got tenth in the boy's Varisty 5K, and I got 24th (23:00, 4th on our team).
The guy I was pacing myself by hurt his shin 2K in, so I was basically on my own then. I passed some other runners, and vied back and forth with this one guy from Estacada. In the last few hundred meters, I was ahead by like ten feet. My coach yelled at me to sprint the last paces, and then the other guy just bolted. It stunned me that he could pass me that quickly in his apparent tiredness. So then I sprinted as fast as I could, and overtook him about 150 feet from the finish line.
All in all, I love cross country. It's team-building, healthy, and builds determination. Also, I have great coaches, both at practice and at home.
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