Race Day
Conner Mantz finished 29th in the 8k race with a time of 25:28. He was the No. 2 runner for Team USA.
My stomach had been bothering me so I kept breakfast small and just ate noodles and cereal. I felt pretty optimistic about the race, but during the warm up I just wasn't feeling it. I stayed positive and acted confident. The race went out super quick and unlike any high school race I've been in, it didn't slow down after 200 meters. It felt like it sped up and I got stuck close to the back (I heard later it was around 80th place), but it was a long race, so anything could happen. The course had a gradual uphill the first 700 meters, and a gradual down the rest of it with the obstacles randomly placed throughout the course. I slowly moved up on the first loop, but got stuck behind a barefoot runner from South Africa. I wanted to give him his space because accidentally spiking him could do some real damage. I got around him, but I just felt very fatigued already and we hadn't even finished the first loop. I came across the approximate 2k mark at 6:07 and could finally see John, Eric and Cerake up ahead. I was struggling. I told myself just to stick it out until the last lap and try to catch people there.
Well, my pace slowed significantly and I wasn't able to do much, but other athletes had gone out way too hard and were just falling off pace worse than me. Mentally I'd lost it. It wasn't fun anymore, but I had to finish hard because I had the letters USA on my chest. I slowly caught up the Cerake and Eric on the third lap and then to John on the start of the fourth. I passed him because he was at the back of a good-sized pack(maybe 8 guys, I wasn't counting). Immediately he got right back on pace and got right into the pack. On the first obstacle of the last loop the pack dropped me. I got close to them on the long hill, but wasn't ever in it. I had mentally thrown in the cards and was content to finish without working hard to pass more. Slowly a few more guys would get dropped and I would pass them. I felt like my legs lacked energy. Moving slow, I heard I was in 31st place, so I made it a goal to be top 30. I passed one guy with about 200m left, and then with 100m left a Ugandan runner had fallen off pace and I was able to outkick him. After the race, I cooled down with Paul Roberts and Julian from Switzerland while cheering on the senior men and women.
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