Disappointing race for me today at Dempsey Indoor. It was such a nice day in Seattle I think my body was just depressed to run indoors. Or maybe I just ran dumb. One or the other. I seeded myself at 8:33 which is a lie but I wanted to get into the fastest heat and figured 8:33 was reachable. I mean, I ran 8:45 two months ago on less mileage and half-way barefoot, you would think that would factor to right around 8:33. But I didn't get into the fastest heat. UW placed 3 of their own guys in the fast heat, despite having slower seed times than me. And yes, this bothers me. Yeah, I see the irony, my seed was a lie... but they didn't know that. What's the point of a seed time if you're just going to slip people in wherever you feel like? It's like that Seinfeld episode. The one complaint I have with Dempsey is that they give the #1 seed the worst start position - right up against the rail. The 3k starts at the end of a curve, so if you don't get out really fast, you get boxed. Which means when you get out fast enough to get clear, everyone else falls in behind you because, hey you're the #1 seed, you're supposed to be fast. And I was arrogant enough to think I could beat them from the front. At first I thought it was working because I couldn't hear anyone behind me. 69 first lap. 70 second. Oh wait, I hear footsteps. Pick up the pace. Is that fast enough? I'm not sure, I'm out front and this feels fast, there's another 70, that's odd I thought I picked it up. My legs are starting to get tight, how are these guys still with me, they should be hurting too! At the mile (4:39) this guy tried to go around me and I decided I decided to keep the lead wire to wire if I could, so I surged to keep him from passing me and make him run in lane 2. He started crowding me and trying to force me to let him take it so I gave him a few elbows and shoved him out of my space a little. It really really bugs me when runners crowd me from the outside. If you're going to pass, pass. Don't cut me off. Dumb move on my part, I should have been happy to let someone else take the lead and rest. When he finally managed to get around, 8 other guys were right there behind him, one right after the other, and going from 1st to 10th completely broke me. So I led through 2k in 5:50 and ran the last 1k in 3:04. Not so hot. I'm trying to be positive here and chalk it up to experience. Plenty of lessons to learn from this one. My goal for the coming weeks is to take better care of my body. I haven't been eating or sleeping well enough, I think it's time to improve. | 