Good race today. Wanted to make our top ten board at BYU, but missed it by just a second. Got the regional qualifying mark as well, so I’m excited to see what the future holds.
Went for about ten minute shakeout with Dallin, Clayton, and Clayson around 2. I felt pretty good. A bit sluggish, but legs were ready. Throughout the day I tried my best to relax by doing homework and studying. At 8 PM Clayton and I drove to the meet and watched Clayson race. Leading up to the race we got to watch a lot of our guys run super well. Many of them had breakthrough track races and they got me super excited to race. I feel bad for singling some out because we had most of our team run super well, but Garrett Marsing and Matt owens both threw down some huge PRs in the steeplechase. Matt, quite unexpectadly ran 8:39. For a guy who was injured most of the indoor track season and in Februrary, that's pretty amazing. Put that on top of him being a redshirt freshman, and it's even more so.
Anyway, I knew I was in good shape and was ready to race fast because nearly everyone I trained with was doing fantastic. \ I had a goal of coming into this race of running 28:45, but if that didn't happen, getting under 28:56(tenth place on the BYU top-ten board, which even Rory and McMilan haven't made yet), or 29 minutes. But all-in-all, I wanted to make sure I qualified. Having all these goal times for one race is something that I don't recommend, as it wasn't good for me during the race.
Race: Warmed up with Clayton for two miles, got out on the track, talked with Jerrel a bit, then lined up at the line. I felt really relaxed. The gun went off and I had no trouble fighting for position. A runner for Tulsa and another from Portland and I just stuck in the back. The first lap was by far the easiest. I kept telling myself to relax and focus on the last mile. I was in last place and came through the first lap around 1:12. 3 seconds slower than 28:45 pace. I just took no thought of it and told myself to relax. Then we ran a 68 next lap(2:20), then continued close that pace until the 1600m. I felt good, had the space I preferred(I had lane one and didn't have to fight for anything), and was just enjoying it. The next 1600m had the pace settle in around 69.X seconds per lap and we were running just a tad under 4:40 for it. I just told myself that I felt 100 times better than the last time I raced a 10km on a track, so just stay on pace.
At about lap 10, I started to worry a bit. My right foot started to hurt. A lot. This is where my mindest, that I had sadly preparred myself for changed. I told myself just stay in here and get that regional qualifier. That's all you need. A for sure regional qualifier is around 29:30, so about 45 seconds slower than my goal. We hit 5km and I was still feeling good though. Somewhere around here I decided to make a pass. Immediately after I regretted it. No one was going to be as nice to me as I was to them earlier and let me to the inside lane. I thought about slowing down and letting 3 or 4 guys get ahead so I could run on the rail again, but decided against it. I eventually found a small gap between two runners and cut in. I kept relaxing, just seeing us run 69.X each lap. At 6km I started doubting I could do this, even though I felt relaxed and was in good positioning. At 3200m to go I saw I needed to run a 9:21 about to run under 29 minutes. Even though my body felt great (other than my foot which felt like I was walking on coals), I was scared to go for anything faster. Somewhere around here a gap formed and there became 2 packs. or lines may be a better description as we were all running single file for the most part. I noticed it too late and told myself that I was too far behind the lead of the second line to get to the first. I should've just tried moving to the first line. With 6 laps to go, I realized that I only needed to run 75s to qualify, and told myself to just go for 72s. If I ran 72s I would finish at 29:10, which isn't a bad time, so I decided to go for that. Around here I was leading a group of guys, one of them was Dillon Maggard who had told me before the race his goal was to just qualify for regionals and run relaxed. He asked me if I wanted to work together, but I declined due to hoping I would(and could) run faster. Well, it was cool that we did end up running together. Anyway I passed a few guys who had fallen off pretty hard, but I was running around 71s to 72s. With two laps to go I could see that sub-29 goal leaving sight. With 400m to go, I realized I only needed to run a 66 to go under 29 minutes. A 66 isn't hard. I ran that in practice on Wednesday and it felt super easy. So I sped it up moderately. A guy from Air Force, one from Portland, and Dillon passed me with about 300m to go. I was like, eh, oh well, until I had about 100m to go and realized I could still go under 29 minutes. I felt great. So I kicked it in. On the curve I passed Dillon, who said something to me (I think he apologized for passing me and making me pass him on the curve, but I'm not 100% sure), and then had the thought of "oh crap, Rory is going to give me a hard time for letting this Portland guy outkick me," and tried to speed it up, but he already had such a good lead on me, and I just couldn't catch up. I crossed the line seeing 28:57, and was pretty happy.
I wasn't really out of breath at all, and immediately started a conversation with the Air force guy who passed me after seeing him throw up right in front of me. After I talked with Jerrel as we were leaving the track and my foot(which I had forgotten a bit about) felt terrible. It was similar to the last time I raced a 10km on a track, but this time the bottom of my foot hurt the most. It felt like the skin on the bottom had rubbed away completely. It hurt. Later I had the trainer look at it, and sure enough, two square inches were rubbed raw. After taking off my shoes, it hurt even more. After it got taped up and stuff I tried to cool down, but it hurt, so I decided to put it off and cool down with Dallin. His race was a lot of fun to watch as he's been injured for nearly a full two years and he came back and ran a personal best of 29:17. After I cooled down with him.
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