<human>: Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?

So yesterday was my cross country regional meet. I hadn't had a very good season, I'd been sick a lot and hadn't run under 18:25, despite running 18:12 last year as a freshman. So I was going into this meet pretty bummed. However, I was still ranked 3rd on my team, so if I didn't qualify for state by placing in the top 15, the team as a whole would probably qualify,so I would as well. Anyways, the course was totally flat, I ran about 1:30 PM, with a nice temperature. Still being a little sick, I went out very conservative, staying in about 25th place with a small pack of my teammates. I was surprised to hit the first mile at 5:38, and I was feeling good, so I (thought) I picked up the pace. During the second mile, I put about 15 seconds on my teammates, and moved from 20-something up to 12th. Again, I was extremely surprised, seeing as I had been sick most of this month. However, I hit the 2-mile at 11:38. I though I had sped up, but I had actually slowed down. Hearing that time, I actually picked it up, a lot. I picked off a pack of three about 40 seconds after going through the 2-mile, then hooked on another pack of 3. One of the kids in that pack and I pulled away from the other 2, putting me in 7th. There was about 800 left at this point, and I was going after this kid. With about 400 left, he kicked and was gone. With about 200 to go, I heard a good size pack about 50m behind me, and seeing as I was having such a good race, I had no intention of being passed. I'm not known for having a kick, but I kicked as hard as I ever had, crossing the finish at 17:18, in 7th place, and actually putting distance between me and the group following me. I have no idea how fast I ran the 3rd mile, but I estimated it was 5:15-5:25. Despite being a little sick, I had never felt better in a race, and I was as excited as I had been in a while.
<bot>: After being sick most of the month, I dropped ~55 seconds from my all time PR and ~65 seconds from my season PR.