This was my first 5k in a long time.  On the warm up, my legs felt a little bit tired and heavy, but i just shrugged it off and told myself that it was only because of the long drive and because it was really early in the morning, even though i knew some of it was just tiredness from 2 weeks of straight running with no break.  Anyways, after the warmup, I stripped down to my racing shirt and neon green racing shorts and stretched while talking to ben, tyler and ryan (senior who won't be on the team next year), just trying to keep cool and relaxed.  I told myself its just a fun run and just to go out and give my best.  When we lined up for the race, i wished all my teamates and my coach good luck, and I was ready to go.  Right off the bat i was right behind jimmy (another of our alumini from the year before, his pr is 15:57) and felt good.  After maybe a quarter mile, ben evened out with me on my left, and harris i heard right behind us.  I was ready to finally run with ben.  When we got to the half mile mark, my breathing was in race mode, but my legs still felt okay, getting kinda tired.  Ben put in a little surge here and got maybe a foot ahead of me, and i told myself to show him im ready to race, so i put in a surge and went in front of him, right behind ryan.  Eventually ben evened with me again, we went through the mile at 5:23, but from the warmup we knew that was really about 1.06 miles, which adds like 10 to 15 seconds, so we were really were like 5:08 to 5:13.  Anyways, i expected ben to put in his surge and he didn't disappoint, and eventually started putting ground between us.  For some reason, this didn't bother me like it has in races before, and i just focused on my arm swing and relaxing my body.  Eventually, the ground gaining slowed until we were going the same pace, him maybe 20 feet ahead of me.  I just put in a small surge and started reeling him back in.  Eventually, about 1.5 miles in, I evened with him again, and i said "Let's run this together" and passed him, expecting him to go with me, but he didn't.  Eventually i started putting ground on him.  Then something caught my attention, Bill was still behind me.  This motivated me and i picked it up a little bit.  I went through the two mile at about 10:45, pretty good pace.  I really had to dig deep now, and i put in another surge at the thought of being passed by ben or coach bill.  The race at this point until a half mile left is just a blur of surges and fear of being passed, causing more surges.  I turned the corner that let me know i had a half mile left, and started picking it up.  Right before the turn a solon kid (later bill told me it was solon's second runner) passed me, and i forced myself to match his faster pace and was staring at his heels.  I was now less than a half mile from the finish, and pulled side by side with the solon kid, and threw in yet another surge and put a lead on him.  Eventually I was going up the last uphill, and from there i knew to sprint.  I really just picked it up again and didn't actually sprint, but it was still a decent kick.  I went through the line and saw the time at about 16:35, finally PRing from 16:58 at strongsville junior year.  I was pretty tired after the race, but recovered quickly, congradulating people i knew as they went through (i was sitting on a bench that was meant to sit down on to take your chip off).  I was pretty satisfied with the result.  I got first in my age group, which was a double thumbs up.  When ican ill post the results website up too.