Good race today. Lots to work on, but it was a fun experience and I learned a lot.
So, most of the day was pretty simple. Just hung around the hotel, slept, ate, and studied for finals. We did a small shakeout around 11-12. At about 6:30 or so we went to the meet. I was feeling prett good, but I think I ate too much before my race becasue I could feel a bit of food still in my stomache, as if it hadn't digested adn was just sitting on top of everything. I checked in, and Dallin, Jake, and I started to warm up around 50 minutes before our race. After getting back, we stretched out and right before I was about to go to the tent to report for the race, I heard them announce that they were combining both of the heats, and that they would run both of them 15 minutes after the first was scheduled. So, know I had another 15 minutes or so. I ran a bit more, stretched, and tried to lengthen out my preparation time. Got to the track, they talked to us for a bit, then quickly put on my spikes, did 3 strides and lined up.
Gun went off, and I went to the inside of lane 5(They had a double waterfall start) and tried to stick with it. The first 200m was very quick, I was near the back at 31ish. Next 400m was pretty relaxed, and about in 68-69, so I was at 1:40 at 600m. I tried to relax and I gradually got into lane 1. I was feeling really relaxed. The next few laps I stayed in position and as people went outside to pass others, I would move ahead, staying in lane one. I slowly passed a few people in lane one. Right before the mile marker Danny Carney got on my shoulder and then moved passed me. I tried to follow, but he was moving up pretty quick. We hit the 1600m mark at 4:25. The next mile was just about consistency. I was so excited. I just kept thinking that today was going to be the day I run 13:45. I stayed in position, and the front pack had people slowly falling off, so I tried to stay on that train. I came through 3200m at 8:50. I was feeling really good. Hurting, but it felt controlled. I knew I could go faster. Somewhere in the next few laps, I either lost sight of what was going on, or just didn't have the strength necessary to continue to speed it up. I remember with 800m to go, I saw that I had fallen off pace, and changed my goal to 13:49. At 800m to go I passed Jerrell Mock and told him to come with me. I looked back 100m later to see him over 10m behind. We'd both fallen off the train, but him more so than me. By the time we hit 400m to go, I was in no man's land. The pack had about 30-40m atleast on me, and the next guy back was about 20m behind. I saw I needed to run 63 to run under 13:50, so I thought it was easily plausible. I tried moving up, telling myself not to lose sight of the goal. It felt like a workout where I was falling apart though. With 100m to go the guys behind me had caught me, and one flew by me. I ran 66 my last lap, so that was a bit frustrating. I was happy to see 13:52 because it was a PR and I knew I had given an honest effort. I had put myself where I needed to be, but just didn't run the necessary 4:22 last mile necessary to accomplish my goal.
After it was fun to find out that we had a 5 guys in the heat run PRs. We cooled down with Cam Levins after. He's a pretty standup guy and it was a lot of fun to talk to him and hear how he's doing. He didn't race near his capabilities, but it was a lot of fun to be in a race with him.
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