It turns out the Mercer Island people don't know their own course (they called the 5k I did sophomore year a 3 mile because they didn't know and hadn't measured so they just guessed). They said they had to lengthen it because construction cut off parts of the course. However, I checked and it matched exactly what the course map showed and exactly what I ran 2 years ago there. Nevertheless, they lengthened the finish. Coach told us to go out super fast and dial it back after 1.5-2 miles if he thought it was right. I think I got carried away. I went out in 4:48. However, I didn't lose it like I usually would have, I just kept on chugging. It felt very good. Matt Roberts ran super well and probably would have come very very close to me had I run like I did at Portland. He split from the main group early and ran isolated the whole time, probably the best race he's had this season. Raymond and Bryce looked quite strong and ran together in 3-4 most the race. Some MI guy ran out of his head and disrupted our sweep. His team went crazy when they saw him so far up. Chris and Carter had extremely good races. This is the first time Carter has run at a level greater than his freshman speed, even though his time didn't reflect it. Both of them almost matched their Portland times, which nobody did on this course. My dad yelled 15:02 at me when I was nearing the final stretch for the course I ran sophomore year (the official one that they have online). Had I run that one, I would have been 15:40-15:45. My sophomore year I topped the MI time I ran that Saturday at Twilight by about 10 seconds. If I could take 10 seconds off of the time I would have gotten and run under 15:40 at Twilight, that would be fantastic. I feel stronger each day now that I am recovering from my illness. I still weigh like nothing though.
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