Long warmup and long cooldown. Salt Creek was alright this year, but I ran alone up front after 400 meters. Kept a consistent stride and effort and the only real disruption was when I went off course, which only cost me 4 or 5 seconds. Still, I think sub-15 was a possibility this year. Minor bummer but I was still 11 seconds faster than the year before. I am not going to enter next week because I have fallen behind on my entries and do not have a good recollection of the week. I am writing this on Sunday, September 27th. I felt a little crummy the morning of Salt Creek, and then really bad on the way home. I woke up feeling sick, and deduced by the end of that Sunday that I was developing a fever. It peaked at 102 degrees on Monday. My coach and parents didn't let me run on Monday. Felt a little better Tuesday, and went to school because I had tests I didn't want to have to make up. I ran that day as well. Decided to run the meet on Wednesday. Bad idea, felt awful, but I still ran 16:35 on a pretty hard course. It must have taken a lot out of me, because my Thursday run was one of my worst experiences ever. Friday we went to Portland and I ran the course and did build ups. I felt better but as I am typing this I am still coughing up mucus and expelling snot with great frequency, and my nightly sinus drainage on saturday is probably what killed my race. I got even worse stomach cramps than I did on Wednesday during the Danner race and it was a trainwreck. I ran horribly, 26 seconds behind where my coach and myself wanted me to be. Coincidentally, I got beat by Will, who I can usually be expected to be 20-25 seconds ahead of, so I know I could have run faster in this race. Bryce has also been sick and did not run too well. Matthew didn't run very well either. Raymond rolled his ankle and didn't race, so Dante ran, although he has been hurting, and ran #6 for us that day. Chris was #7 and needed help walking after the race. I'm not sure what part of his leg he hurt. Really the only people who ran well were Will and Joseph, who ran 15 seconds behind me that day. I am now 10 pounds under what I was a few weeks ago. Hopefully I can get back in action this week. I would like to run low-16s or sub-16 at Luther Burbank, a fairly difficult 5k course, on Wednesday and follow it up with a sub-15:40 at Twilight. Essentially, I'd just like to forget all about last week because I was clearly out of it and set myself up for a 15:30 performance at the state meet.
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