Woke up at 8 and got showered and went and had breakfast with Kramer, Connor and Rory. We talked about the race and what our plans were and I told Kramer I would stay with him for the first two miles at least. I ate a bagel, a muscle milk, two glasses of cranberry juice, a half a waffle, some cereal, and a sausage, egg and cheese biscuit (a lot I know but I eat quite a bit when I'm nervous and I didn't want to be hungry during the race). We got our race stuff on and got on the bus and headed to the course. When we got to the course we went to the bathroom and then we went and warmed up and watched some random girl win the girls race who wasn't even ranked and was wearing a bib with something like 400 on it (the higher the bib the lower you are ranked). We actually did two warmups because we wanted to be well warmed up for the race. I went to put on my spikes and headed to the start line. I was wearing bib 70 which sucked because I was supposed to start on the outside but apparently I didn't. RACE: I took off as quick as I could manage while still staying in control and got next to Kramer. We worked together passing people and pacing each other. I really like running with someone in a race because you pace off each other making it easier than just running by yourself, unfortunately Rory was a ways back so he didn't run with us. Kramer and I were in a good position and spent the whole race picking people off because they took off too fast. We hit the mile and were right with Michael Finch from PV who was really fast at NXR so I tried to get him to go with us but he didn't seem to hear or notice me. When we started going up the switch backs I was expecting people to start passing me by the truck load but instead I was the one doing the passing and Kramer stayed right on my heels because it wasn't wide enough for us to be running two wide. We crested the hill and I took off down the hill and caught 3 people on the first downhill then 5-6 on the second downhill so my training in the hills in Herriman wasn't pointless after all. When we got to Poop-Out I was pooped but I tried my hardest to stay with Kramer who was eating up the hills. At Reservoir Hill I was like 30 meters behind Kramer and around 5-6 places behind him but I could not get my body going. I passed a kid up the hill and then another going down the hill but Kramer passed 4. He kept getting further away and I couldn't close anything on him. I hit the Airstrip at full speed and tried my hardest to pass some people and got 2 and when I hit the Gauntlet some one was yelling that I was in like 20th place and I heard some kids behind me so I didn't want to get outkicked by them and lose a medal. I got on the track and heard a familiar voice, my Dad, he was cheering for me and I kicked it in passing 1 kid and finishing 18th. I saw Kramer and he had finished 7th so he was going to Nationals, Conner was 4th and Ben Saarel won it by 9 seconds which was not surprising but he told us he didn't think he would win. Jerrell Mock from Logan was 12th which sucked because he was so close to getting a spot at Nationals. After the 3 Utah guys got out of processing for Nationals we went and cooled down. Utah won the team scoring so us 5 got medals. As my last XC season as a high schooler comes to a close I would like to thank my coaching staff, family, teammates, and friends. Coach Barnes has been with me throughout my entire high school cross county duration, He has seen me through my failures and never gave up on me even when I gave up on me, there were some rough times between us and we didn't always get along but what we did agree upon was running. My dad has always been a huge supporter of my running (even when I wished he wouldn't), He never missed a race, even when He and my Mom were in Alaska he had my brother Nik drive to Utah County and video chat him and keep him up to date. Kyle Johnson, when I was a young boy I would always look up to him and I would run road races just to beat him but I could never seem to catch him. I joined the XC team and did summer training, but I could never catch him and I was always striving to be better. He was one of the main reasons I got to the point I am today. Even though he was injured his junior year, I had the privilege of racing him healthy his senior year (my junior year) at the Herriman Invite in the 2 mile in one of my favorite races of my entire high school career and we came across the line 1-2. Rory Linkletter kept me on my toes this season and at State he met his goal, he beat me. Although I was sad that I was beaten I was happy for him because he met his goal even though it meant that I got beat. He was never far behind only ever being 5-10 seconds back except at NXR and Region where I beat him by 1/2 of a second and 2.7 seconds respectively. He was a good friend and I respect him not only as a teammate but also as a fellow competitor, friend, and brother (though we are not related to slightest). This upcoming season of track will be a good one, I can feel it. My goal is as always to win State and this is my last chance to do it. I will do it.
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