Notes
2016 IHSA State XC Meet
Going into this race, we felt really strongly that our team was more than capable of coming away with a trophy if we ran like we could. Squad was really nervous during the warm up, and I did my best to remain calm and loose up until the race went off. We had an outside box, which was perfect. We got out well and avoided the drain clog at the candy cane pole. Milner actually went out in the lead, dingus. Came back around through the mile in decent position, definitely in the top 100, as our 4th man, which is right where I wanted to be. Came through in like 4:50-4:55, right on pace for my goal of sub 15. As we went back in the triangle, I lost contact with the few guys who I was focusing on running with, as it seemed like they took off. Didn't lose much ground during that mile, but really didn't pick any up either. Came through the 2 mile in 10:00 exactly, which was very disappointing for me. I didn't realize I had slowed down so much. Almost considered giving up there since I wouldn't break 15, but I knew the team needed me and it was time to go. Really focused on moving up from that point, it was all about place. Passed Jon soon after the 2 mile and new the team needed me to come up big. Passed so many people the last mile, including a bunch of rivals who had beaten me all year. Coming into the last 400, I blew passed another maybe 10 guys. With 50m to go, I saw a dude from York dying in and found another gear to just get him at the line, because fuck York. Didn't get passed by a single person the entire last mile. Had a huge drop, and ran 15:05 which was good for 48th place. Unfortunately, the team placed the unlucky 4th place directly off a trophy. York, Ofallon and LT were just better on that day.