Kiersten is in but feels miserable for Kees... they're best friends so she hates that he's worked that hard and didn't make it.

Considering her inexperience racing 3000 on the track she had a good race. At my instruction she let the girls go at the start and took the first 200 meters easy, then she ran the next four laps with metronomic precision... not within a second of each lap but EXACTLY the same time for for each lap.

Pacing herself is something that she is has always been extraordinary at... in triathlons going hard enough to go 99% on the bike but not blow up for the run which she would run at 100%. I knew she could pace herself like I wanted her to do... I was just shocked that she was able to pace herself so precisely!

With two laps to go she sat comfortable in fourth and upped her pace and slowly started to reel in numbers two and three. At the start of the final lap she was about 100 meters behind them and at about the 300m mark turned on the afterburners and picked up her pace to around her 200m speed... she passed into third and was set to pass into second when "boom!" she blew up at the 100m mark and was left on the backstretch. It was a nuclear explosion and she limped down the backstretch and finished fourth.

She knows that she has a 200m kick, but she said that she was nervous that it wasn't enough distance to pass the girls and had to take a chance... she learned a lesson that a 200m kick started at 300m equals kaboom on the backstretch ;-)

She's got a few weeks to work with the college coach here to get some more speed, but she realizes that right now she doesn't have enough miles under her to be fast enough to win... she just wants to be competitive and enjoy the experience... the Junior Olympics.