And I was right- we ran a very wet and muddy race. It rained early this morning and all during my warm up and I was splattered with mud by the end and my spikes got the true cross country initiation. I got a good 3 mile warm up and felt good, just really nervous. We started on the field in the middle of the track. We had to start again because a girl fell in the chaos of wet slippery mud and I didn't get as good of a start the second time. I spent the first part of the race moving up into position with the San Fran girls. (and laughing when I saw some girl shoving with her shoulders in the first 400 meters for position...)The first loop went by really quick and I was in a good spot- stride for stride with the taller SF girl. I was dreading the second loop because it is usually hard but I still felt really good. I was right in the front of the pack with a LMM, Portland and 3 San Fran girls. It felt good and I just knew the last lap would be a lot faster and harder- and it was. I was fine until we ran down off the field and into the last 800 meter loop. The group started pulling away and I was struggling to stay with them. We all started kicking and I was determined to get at least one girl. I passed one girl before the track and down the final stretch passed another girl to finish 4th with a 20:38. And it must have been a good kick- the girl I passed told me I have a bad a-- kick... :) Fourth place is better than I thought- I had no idea I would with the front pack for that long. Now as I look back though I am kind of mad. I was only 3 seconds behind the winner. 3 seconds. And I felt so good for the first few miles. During the second loop, I thought "take the lead and pick it up" but immediately decided it was would be too scary because it is a college race and they would definitely pass me. So I sat. I am mad I couldn't gut it out the last part because I had stuck with the top group for the whole race. I don't know if I will have another race like this but I got to stop letting college racing intimidate me. So I will be back next year in the front to win it. | 