AM-2 mile shakeout
Race-that hurt, got out way too slow, sped up and the last 800 was a death march instead of the monster kick I was hoping for, but it was a big personal record.
Warmed up with Clayton, then did a few strides on my own before doing some on the track. My stomache felt a little more full than I would've liked, so that's something to work on. The gun went off, and I immediately cut into lane 5. We were on the outside waterfall, which was very favorable because then I didn't have to fight for position too much early on. The race strung out, and the pacer was a bit slow(he was supposed to lead us through 3k at 8:00), so I came across 400m at 1:08. I told myself to relax still. After going through 600m at 1:40, I was a little nervous still, but then I came across 800m at 2:12 and knew we were speeding up. Sometime around here Kejelcha and Eric Jenkins passed me, and I expected the race to speed up. It did. I came across 1600m at about 4:20-21. I remained in lane one for the majority of the race, and did my best to stay with the guy in front of me. Every couple laps, someone would fall off the front pack and I'd pass them. At halfway the leaders were at 6:45(or atleast that is what they announced), so I knew I wasn't too far off pace from my goal of sub 13:30. Clayton was a few spots ahead of me. Around the 7th lap, I felt a blister begin on the bottom of my foot and it hurt quite suddenly. I thought I had somehow cut my foot by the way it felt, but I kept pushing. The guy in front of me was pretty consistent with splits(or atleast I thought so), so it made averaging 65s pretty easy. I came across 3200m at 8:40, so right on pace to run 13:32.5. With 3 laps to go, I started to feel pretty fatigued. With 2 laps to go, I didn't think I could finish in the necessary 2:08 to run sub 13:30, and was afraid I was going to start going backwards and run 66s or slower. At 600m, I caught up to Clayton and tried to encourage him. At 500m to go, I passed him and then we were both passed by Tyler Day. With 400m to go, I had kinda given up on my goal and just wanted to finish, knowing that I would run a good time either way, but I was in a lot of pain. With 200m to go, I was hurting, but told myself that I'd spent way too much effort to slow down now. I came across the line right at 13:29, and I was pumped! It was cool to be in such a fast heat with so many talented runners. Clayton was 2 seconds behind me at 13:31. I personally think he could've ran faster than I did, but it wasn't his best day.
Long cool down after with Clayton and, for part of it, the NAU boys.
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