9-15 MOLALLA: HERE WE ARE

I ran a 19:57 for the 5k at Molalla. I feel pretty good about this run. My first mile was in 6:16. My average pace was 6:25/mile, so I slowed down a little bit. My strategy for the race was pretty good until a point about two miles in on the thin trail. There, I tried sprinted past 4 people because they were running pretty slow. That used up more energy than it was worth, though. A guy that was behind me when I passed those 4 ended up getting 19:30. I need to be smarter. Otherwise, it was good. I think I passed about 30 people and got passed by 5. I felt like I was going pretty hard, but after the last hill when we got back on the main trail, I felt like I could breath pretty well and wasn't going too hard. I was trying to go hard, but maybe I can go harder. People did go out insanely fast. The course was not nearly as streamlined as North Bend, so I think I ran better today.
I kind of experimented with what I ate before the race, and I ate more. This seemed to work pretty well. My stomach felt fine. I think I was able to be fairly strong throughout the whole race. Dad is trying to tell me to eat more, such as something high energy, before the race to keep me from fading. It's a good idea, I'm just hesitant to make my stomach feel like crap. I think it can work, though.
Our team performance was insanely good, about as good as it could have gone. We can't be ignored now. We beat Scappose by quite a bit. We also beat our team from last year by quite a bit. I couldn't have seen that coming before the year started, especially without having Chris. However, it is just one small step. Brookings is good. We have to keep working hard. Bring on Tahkenitch.