Ran the mile at region today. Got in a solid warmup then headed over to the line. It was windy, but nothing too bad, and I was feeling good, so I went in with high expectations. The gun went off and I just kind of went to the middle of the pack and tucked into the inside. The pace went out really slow, which generally isn't a good thing for me, but getting to the front and pushing the pace would have taken a lot of energy from where I was, so I just sat and waited. I came through the first lap in 70, and the pace just stayed there for the next 600. 800 split was about 2:20. Once we made the turn with 500 to go everybody all of the sudden just opened up their strides and the race began. The first 200 of the next lap everybody was still together, then with 200 to go Jamison and Lil Warner started pulling away and I tried to pass Thomas Heaps on the inside to go with them, but understandably he cut me off and I had to stop a little and lost some momentum. At this point I realized if I didn't move now I wouldn't qualify, and I turned it on. With 80 meters to go I moved into lane 2 to get around Ryan Raff and Thomas who were side by side and just went into an all out sprint. It came down to the final 40 meters but I was just able to outkick Ryan for the last qualifying spot in fourth! Final time was 4:30, which I was very surprised at considering how slow our first 1000 was, and my last lap was like a 63, so that was good. Lil' Warner won and Jamison got second, so we have four guys qualified in the mile. Afterwards I did like 40 minutes of cooldown. I am so pumped for state.
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