Monster Fail

I just got home from Minnesota. Griak was good fun. The race was a disaster.

Despite rain on Friday, by Saturday morning the weather had turned much more friendly and we ended up getting a very nice day. The course was only slightly muddy. I still ran horrible. Pfeuffer and I tried to push each other through the entire race, but it wasn't enough and the two of us seemed to fade away as we went along. The first mile was fine. The adrenaline rush of hundreds of screaming and chanting fans carried everyone along and I managed to get to the mile 1 marker in 5:50, right where Russ wanted me to be. About half a mile later I started getting tired. Halfway through the race I tanked. Pfeuffer and I continued to struggle through the remainder of the course but it was an entirely futile battle. We passed Moman (who was also having a terrible race) but he caught us both again before the end. Pfeuffer finally started to pull away in the last mile but I beat him (and two unsuspecting MSOE guys) at the finish. I let the monser out about 3 times just to keep myself from quitting. My final time was about 30:34, more than a minute and a half slower than last week. Some others had trouble as well. Besides myself and Pfeuffer (and Moman), pretty much everybody ran a little slow just because of the course. Lindsay fainted on the last straightaway, which really sucks because she was having a great race. I kind of admire her though. Sometimes I wish I could say that I've passed out trying to beat my body into going faster.

I don't know what happened out there this morning. The course is not hard. I don't care what anyone says about it. There's not a single real hill on that entire 5 mile path. Russ told us the night before that it's a "Kindergarten Course" compared to some real climbs out there. He's right, too. Last year I ran fine at this meet, despite getting only 3 hours of sleep the night before and being dehydrated. This year I crashed and burned.

Oh well, I guess I just have to forget about it and move on. Like the backs of our yellow t-shirts say, "Ain't nothing gonna break my stride, nobody's gonna slow me down. I've got to keep on movin!" The bright side is that, as a team, we defeated MSOE and St. Norbert, and came very close to catching Ripon. The women did just as well. Considering that several people ran poorly and one of our top 5 wasn't even here, we might be able to compete for the State Private School championship in a few weeks.