(Photo by Joe Mizereck)
Hey Florida runners! This past weekend I raced at the Alligator Lake invite in Lake City. I raced there last year too and it is one of my favorite courses I have ever run, but this year was quite different than last year. All the rain had caused the course to be extremely muddy and slippery. It was alot of fun though because I have never raced in conditions like that before. I won the race last year and came in second this year, but was the first finisher from Florida. Some teams came down from Georgia and there was some steep competetion there.
Before the race my coach and I came up with a game plan which was to just sit back on the lead pack until the last mile, but that plan didnt work out at all. From the gun I was out in front and I slowed down in hopes that some other runners would join me, but they stayed about 10-20 meters behind me, while going the same pace. I didn't hear them behind me at all during the race, so the last 400m when I was coming out of the woods these two kids from Georgia shot by me, and it caught me by surprise.
(Photo by user columbiatrack)
(Photo by user columbiatrack)
It took me a little bit to realize what had just happened, but a few seconds later I had gained my focus back. The leader was kicking really hard and I knew he was too far to get, but I knew i could catch up to the other runner and still manage to get second place. I was reeling him in with about 300 meters to go and caught up to him with about 50 meters remaining in the race. Once he realized I was right next to him we were stride for stride coming into the finish, and i wasnt going to leave it up to a photo finish. I had to beat him. I knew he was going to lean for the line and so was I, but I had to do more than that to beat him. My last step I lunged forward and dove across the line to get second place by .02 seconds. I had never dove or even had to lean in a race before, so it was definitley something new, but every point counts and it was totally worth it.
Besides the dive there were some great performances on my team. Joe Janson our number two runner PR'ed with a 16:57 and freshman Nicholas Pelegrina broke the 19 minutes barrier for the first time! As usual I always read a quote to my runners as we are getting ready to race and this weeks quote was a little goofy. It was to somewhat inspire them, but get them in a relaxed mind set and lighten the mood before the gun went off. The quote was, "I done wrestled with an alligator. That's right. I have wrestled with an alligator. I done tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail. That's bad! Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalised a brick! I'm so mean I make medicine sick!" by Muhammad Ali
My next race in FLrunners and I'm very excited for it. It has great competition and it's on a fast course! I hope everyone has a great week of training and I'm sure ill see many of you at the race!