The state meet had finally come. For the seniors, this would be their last chance. Everyone knew going into this race, that it would be a close one. We went to the praying tower about an hour before the race (pre-race ritual for mustang). In the tower was silence, dead silence was among the seven of us. After we finished at the tower, we headed toward our tent to put on our spikes. I went off by myself and warmed up. Listening to my cd player, I thought about my strategy. Before I knew it, it was time to line up. Michael prayed and coach gave us a little motivation, then it was off to line.
The gun fired, and everyone took off. Millions of thoughts were rushing through my head, and then all of a sudden I made up my mind to try and separate myself from the rest of the pack. I came through the quarter at 64! I knew that was quick, so I slowed up a little. I came around the 800 mark and adrenaline hit me, with the tunnel of people screaming....there were people right behind me and I knew I was hauling this first mile, but I kept going, telling myself to go faster. I came up the hill for the first mile....with my coach screaming 4:36!...At that instant, I thought I had a chance at the record. (15:29). I kept going....before I finally reached the 2 mile mark in 9:48. I had people telling me how big of a lead I had..but the record was all I wanted at this point. I finished the loop and headed toward the finish. By the time I had 500 to go the record was out of hands, but I still finished strong. Right as I finished I immediately thought about all of my teammates. I rushed back to see: Josh Yax finish with one shoe, Roberts, Walsh, Mackelvie all finish so strong.
After the race..I congratulated everyone I saw, and our team was really nervous about the points and whether we won or not. As we sat and waited nervously for the results, our coach came over and announced that unofficially we had won by 12 points!!! As I started getting excited, my teammates were asking me to stop and wait for official results.lol. So when the official results came in...Everyone started hugging each other and some even shed some tears. A lot of hard work had paid off. Congratulations to everyone who ran...and good luck in the future!
(OKtrackXC.com would like to thank Kevin for writing a journal and congratulate him on his great performance at the state meet.)