Well, it’s all over.
It has been a really fun trip to the Bay Area. The weather has been amazing, and so many things lined up so well to make it a great trip. I’m grateful for the amazing support I’ve had. My grandpa used his Marriott card to get us an awesome hotel a mile away from the track. My dad drove down to watch me which was so nice of him. It was great to spend time with him. My girlfriend wrote me a nice and comforting letter, my coworkers made me a Good Luck sign, my high school teammate cheered me (and her boyfriend) on, and my roommate prayed for me and called me right after the race. Someone even suggested to put my name on the temple prayer role- Well, I won’t complain.
Thankfully I wasn’t overly nervous, despite all the weight that was on this race. I wouldn’t say I felt springy Thursday, but I did feel the altitude difference. I laced up my flats REALLY tight, we lined up (in no order whatsoever), and it was on...
The pacer said he was going to go out in 4:30. No one ran that pace for the whole race so idk why he was doing that. My teammate Andrew went out right behind him but wasn’t interested in running that fast either so the race went out slow. I hit 400 in 70. 800 was 2:19, then 3:30 at 1200 and 4:40 at the mile (these splits came from my dad). I was too conservative. I didn’t have really any problems with the large number of people on the track, other than a little shoving with JD Thorne from Utah State, which was a bit scary with the rail on the inside. In a way I don’t blame myself because we formed a line and it would have taken a big effort to pass people. But in all my worry about training the past few weeks and the fact that my goal pace for 5K was faster than my (unconverted) PR 3K pace, I was just scared. I didn’t trust myself. I didn’t give myself the chance to run 14:10. For example, I could have run 75s and then closed as hard as I could in 58. I closed as hard as I could, but running 70s didn’t give me the chance to run what I needed.
I hit 3K in 8:42. It was weird because once again I’m not used to running that fast and not feeling dead. I felt fine. With one lap to go I was at 13:19. Watching the video, it looks like I passed like 20 people the last mile ha. I started in the back of he race and finished sixth. I passed Andrew and then that helped him pick up the pace. He passed me on the last straight. That was a 63 last lap (5:40 last 2K). Within a few minutes of cooldown I felt not bad at all. Lesson learned. Not good enough to make the team, but it was a good experience. I’m so glad I didn’t bomb the race. Now I have to decide what the rest of my season will look like. One thing about this race is that it made me (figuratively) hungry. I want to get faster! Well, sorry for the essay.
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