Miles Unterreiner at PASCO

Miles Unterreiner at PASCO

Miles Unterreiner 4A CHAMP 15:39

Mile Unterreiner participated, witnessed and enabled the completion of a project he started 4 years ago.

In a year in which anyone could do anything, in the race where they were all there, Miles opened and shut the door.

Miles entered the 4A championship race on Saturday , fully aware that he was among a list of 6 or 7 runners who could win the title.
    
He ran against most of the field in meets and invitationals for the past 4 years.  Jonathan Lafler, Rob Webster, Kelly Lynch, Joey Bywater, Kevin Rosaaen, all these runners had the right game and new how to bring it when it counted.  Saturday, Nov 3, 2007, at 3:45 it did count.

All of the top runners had respect for each other.  Each knew anyone could run away with race.

Miles entered the race with the same respect and awareness of his competition, which has colored most of his top ranked contests.

He started cautious, hanging back until mid race, sizing up the other runners, preparing a defense and offense worthy of this list of athletes.

He trailed behind Kevin Rosaaen of Wilson and Rob Webster of Puyallup, sizing up the crowd.

By the 2nd mile he made a move to settle the effort.  Miles moved ahead of Jonathan Lafler of Tahoma, both runners pushing the pace and locking in what will become a 9 second lead off of #2.

The push took its toll on Lafler who finished 20 seconds behind Miles.

In the end, this late race push finalized the outcome of the race.   

Miles pulled ahead of the crowd, stayed ahead and finished unchallenged a full 9 seconds ahead of no 2: Rob Webster.

Miles never knew where he was once he made the break, With the disciplined attack of a true athlete, he never looked back to size up what he needed to do, he assumed the best of the rest were right on him and he ran to win until the last step.


I asked Miles to look at the race and find one thing he would have liked to change, he reinforced the uselessness of the  question in a race that he was so delirious to have won, but after some thought, he would have pushed the pace even more when challenging Lafler at the 2 mile.  He says he held back a bit.  Had things been any different, had Lafler read Miles differently the race could have changed.  In a tribute to the well honed instinct of an athlete committed to his craft, Miles read the race, the competition and the work to be done,  perfectly.

When Miles entered the racing world 4 years earlier he had not even entertained the thought of finding himself at the top of the heap.

He was happy to be on the team, to be a runner and to enjoy something he was good at.

In the process Miles discovered the big secret of this sport.  If you get on board, put your shoes on every day and just run, you get good.  If you become aware of this early enough you get real good.