You've got to want it to win it

After cheering on Abigail and Amanda I went and warmed up with Ben.  We did a lap around the block that the stadium is on which is probably about a mile.  Then I stretched and relaxed under my team's tent and then cheered for Ben in his race.  My race wasn't for a few hours so for most of the day I just stayed under the tent in the shade.  Finally it was getting closer to golden hour so Natalie and I started to warm up.  We did 2 laps around the block and then went and got our spikes and water and I got my Gu and we went over by the bull pen to do strides and drills.  We decided it would be fun to do our cross country cheer, even there were only 2 of us, so we did haha!  It was just the 2 of us jumping in circles with our hands on each others shoulders, that was entertaining!  We miss cross country!  Finally it was our turn to go into the bull pen to put on our spikes and get our numbers.  When we walked out onto the track we each poured some water on us to cool us down since it was hot and sunny.  Right before our race started, some clouds came which was nice.  For the first lap I sat with the front of the pack and just went at their pace.  I don't remember the split, though I think it was a 77.  100 meters into the second lap Jamie started to push the pace so some of the pack, myself included, went with her.  With 150 left in that lap I got to where I needed to be but when we got to 2 laps left I wasn't able to break away.  The split then was 2:38.  I got passed a lot in the last 2 laps, I don't even remember what position I was in at 600 left, which is where I had planned on moving for my final kick.  All during the last lap I kept getting passed but couldn't make myself hold on enough to stick with any of the girls.  And Natalie outleaned me at the line and beat me by .04 seconds, close race.  I didn't cool down afterwards, I just went and relaxed under the tent again because there wasn't much time until I would need to start warming up for the medley.  I did 2 laps in the side field and then did some drills and strides when it was time to go to the bull pen for the medley.  Victoria and Josephine were on the 200s and Jasmine was the 400 leg.  We had the top seeded time going into it and were in lane 6.  Victoria and Josephine said they didn't have the best handoff but that was alright, Jasmine ran an amazing 400 and got us into the lead in the last 100.  When I started to run as she finished the lap she had to weave between some of the other girls because one of them stepped forward to where I had been standing before Jasmine had passed.  Still I had several meters lead and I pushed because I really wanted to do well for the team.  I could see how much of a lead I had on the big screen as I was on the first curve, and 300 meters in Tolbert yelled to me that I had 20 meters on the girl in second.  I made myself go to my toes and really pushed the last 500 meters of it.  On the big screen it looked like I had an even bigger lead this time but I wasn't going to relax my efforts.  I stayed pushing the whole time and again when I got to where Tolbert was he said I had 20 meters on the girl in second.  I kicked hard on the last 100 and as I was stopping after crossing the line the official gave me the shell of the bullet that had started the race.  Our time was 4:15.74, a new team best I believe :)  I think I ran a 2:23 or something around there for the 800, I remember the clock said 2:20 when I reached the 200 mark of my leg.  It was a great way to end the day and I really look forwards to running this event at state in 2 weeks, we are gonna win it!