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uggs
Newbie
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Joined: 15 Sep 2006
Posts: 13
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 Posted: 10/17/06 - 21:14 Post subject: Breaking 19 in a 5k.
This is the story of my race last week, it will be a little lengthy.
My entire cross country season, I'd been in 3rd for my team. I had started out with 23 minutes, and had got down to 19:25 as my PR, beating my previous record of 20:30. This saturday was the last race for me (freshman) so, for a good time beforehand, I was praying, eating healthy, doing all that stuff. The morning of the race, I'd woken up late, so was in a big bustle for the car. I got to school, went to the bagel place across the street, then got on the bus. I just listened to music the entire way, thinking. When I stepped off the bus at 7 a.m., it was quite chilly. We chilled at the tent for a while, talking, then did the course tour. I had my hoodie, sweatpants and underarmor on. During the tour, I was uncommonly tired, and I wasn't going to hard or anything. This worries me. Girls frosh soph runs, I cheer, then I stretch, get my spikes on, and go to the line. I remove my sweatshirt and sweatpants, so im down to my underarmor. It was weord, but it just made me feel like a runner.
The gun goes off, and I have a quick start, but not as fast as i'd hoped. I was in the middle of the lead group, and we parted form the rest. I was feeling good, but just after the one mile mark, while turning a bend, the person infront of me slowed down to almost a walk, causing me to fall. The person behind me fell also, his knee colliding with my shins. I had shin splints already, so this really, really hurt. I shook my head. It happened right infront of my team, much to their dismay. Oh well. I get up and keep running, but the pain is throbbing and hurts. I want to stop bad, but I just couldn't. My first mile was 6:03, mediocre. The second mile, I heard my split as 12:42. I was shocked, so started running almost at my 400 pace. I don't know how, but I held it throughout the last mile. The pain was gone now; I was feeling good. I was the fastest freshman-sophomore sprinter on my team, so I notoriously burn at the final chute. But this day, the chute was nearly 200 meters. I sprinted too early, and got tired, so I finished the chute just above my race pace. I was very, very worried that I didn't break 19. I'd had to have run a sub 6 last mile, unheard of for me. I'd only done sub once, and that was my first mile, but the next two were slower. That was were I had got my 19:25. Nervous outside the finish line, the 4th place runner on my team approached me. He was 6 positions behind me. He told me that he had broken 19, so I must have. I was in a dreamlike state. It turned out that I had a 18:39 time! I'd broken my PR by a minute twice this season. That made my day, and pretty much my week. On to track now! I'll keep you guys updated if I have any good meets. Thanks for reading.
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