Well, this race report is a little late, but I figure it is better late than never, so here it goes. I got up at 6am, and was at the race by about 7:15. I ran the race course as a warm-up, ran a few strides and then waited for the race to start. As the race name suggests this race is put on for law day every year, and is put on by a bunch of area law firms. There is a competition between the different law firms where they recruit runners for their speed teams. Our team this year was running for Manning Curtis, and was comprised of myself, Paul, Josh Steffan, Lindsey Dunkley, and Emily Bates. Our main competition was a team put together by Olsen Shader (?) with Teren Jameson, Nate Hornock, and Albert Wint being our male competition (not sure who the women were). Anyhow, the race started and like usual Teren took off at a sprint from the gun. Knowing that he would do this I decided that I wanted to see how long I could hang with him and I took off just slightly behind him. When the course started uphill I made up the distance and tucked in behind him. My goal was to try and stay as close as possible for as long as possible. When I ran this race last year I was able to maintain contact through the first mile, and after that Teren slowly pulled away from me. About a half mile into the race I was wondering how long I could maintain the pace for. I was breathing really hard, and my legs were burning already. I got a little break once we hit a slight uphill as I felt like Teren backed off some. I felt like Teren backed off just a little on almost every uphill during the first half of the race and I was crowding him from behind. I even debated passing him a few times, but decided against it. I guess that it goes to show the respect that everyone has locally for Teren. There was no way that I was going to try and take a lead on a runner of his caliber until the very end in a race this short. Just before the mile mark I could see Paul coming up on us from behind in my peripheral vision, but by the time we hit that mark I could no longer see him, and I refocused on staying with Teren. Hit 1 mile in 5:00. The course was the same as last year for approximately the first 2K, after which it was completely different than last year. Hit the biggest uphill of the course from 1 mile to 2K and stayed with Teren, feeling pretty good still. Hit 2K in 6:20. I stayed right on Teren's tail for the rest of the race, hitting 3K in 9:16 (2:56) and 4K in 12:12 (2:56). Teren started to gap me just a bit between 3K and 4K, but I dug down and held it together. I was right on his tail again by the time we hit 4K. Just past that mark we were crossing the first part of the course again and the lead car had to stop because of the walkers that were in the way. Teren and I both ran up alongside the car. Teren had to push off of it, and I almost hit the car as well before it got out of the way. We then continued on with Teren leading until just before the last corner. There was a slight downhill before the turn, and as we came towards the corner I made my move, passing Teren. After rounding the corner however, Teren made his move and I couldn't respond. He pulled ahead coming down the last straightaway and finished in 14:52, while I finished 3 seconds back in 14:55. Paul came in third in 15:16, followed by Nate Hornock in 15:19. I am very happy with this race, as this is the closest I have ever come to beating someone of Teren's caliber. I also performed well in comparison to many of the other runners in the race, beating them by as much or more than I expected to, so I am really happy with how I did. In the past I have wondered if I really will be able to hit an OTQ mark in the marathon. Now however, I am not thinking so much about whether or not I can hit the mark eventually but about how much faster I can potentially go.
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