Last Friday we raced at UW-Eau Claire.  Like I said before, we were trying a new strategy.  The plan was to have my sister Kayla, our #5 runner, lead a pack of Alex Potter, Kristin Mork, and me (our #2-4 runners) through 3k.  She was supposed to go out in about 6:15 for the first mile.  The point of all this was to try to close the gap a little between her and us.  Well, the strategy worked wonders for her!  She ended up taking us through the first mile in 6:04, then we did about a 6:15 2nd mile.  Kayla PRed with a 23:42.  So that was really exciting that she did so well.  Me, that is another story.  It was definitely better for me than Griak but still not quite what I'd hoped.  The different strategy with a little slower 2nd mile was weird for me.  I started going a bit more at the 3k, but by the middle of the 3rd mile I started falling off a little.  I kicked down a bunch of people at the end to run a season-best 23:10, but still finished only 4th on my team and got beat by some people that I know I can stick with.

It's okay, though, because I knew going in that it was going to be a lower-key meet and the goal was more team-oriented so it didn't matter so much how I did.  Now we have a week off of racing and then we will be at Oshkosh on Oct. 17.  Oshkosh is a lightening fast course and I am hoping for a PR there.  But for now, I just need to focus on training and staying healthy.