Today was our Team Race to kick off xc season for this year. I was a team captain for the grey team and I was quite doubtful of our team yesterday cuz only two girls showed up (including me...) and also I just had that "we are gonna struggle so hard" vibe... but we actually pulled out the win on both the girls and the boys side and I'm so proud of us! Anyway I started my day with a mile wu and then drills and a few strides as a team. I was a little nervous just cuz it's hard to know what to expect at the beginning of the season. Like my body forgot or something haha. Right from the beginning I ran right beside Gan and it stayed that way for most of the race. We had a solid but slightly slow first mile and it felt relatively easy. Second mile was a little bit faster and still felt pretty good. Had a couple of good surges during this mile as well. At the start of the third mile I was startin to feel a little drained but Gan and I still kept a decent pace. However we slowed down quite a bit when we hit the swampy grass which is not quite the best for running. I felt pretty good about my kick once I hit the track for the last 400m or so. Ended up with a 19:47 which is not quite what I wanted. I was hoping for more around a 19:30 but I think it will come. Looking back I could have picked it up a little more at the beginning of the third mile and also could have taken a few seconds off of both the first and second mile. Oh well, it wasn't a complete fail and I'm looking forward to the season. Shoutout to Gan for pushing me. I am definitely not a good solo racer so I super appreciate her.
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