You've got to want it to win it

This morning Bekah and I had our final workout before regionals!  We did the usual warmup and strides and drills, then Kep gave us the workout.  It was an 800 at 81-82 pace with 3 minutes recovery, then 6 or 7 400s with 90 seconds recovery, going down a second every 2 reps.  I hit the 800 in 2:42 with even splits, then we took a lap recovery before starting the 400s.  Kep wanted this to be a very relaxed workout and stay aerobic, so the 400s weren't supposed to be fast.  I hit 83, 81, 79, 80, 78, 77.  I alternated 200 and 100 jog recovery on those.  Then we finished with some fast 200s, I hit 35 on both of them.  We cooled down 2 miles and felt great!  I had to tell Bekah to relax since we were pushing sub 7 pace!  Afterwards we stretched and I did a 13 minute ice bath.  We leave for Arkansas tomorrow!

This morning after class I  went to Liberty Park for a nice flat run on the grass.  I did a little over 3 laps around the outer perimeter.  My average pace was 6:43!  I'm pretty sure that is a new record for me.  I'm excited to compete at regionals and to go into the race knowing I am ranked just a few spots away from the top 12. :)

In the evening after arriving at our hotel I went for a run with Bekah.  We ran to a paved trail by the railroad tracks and ran about a mile along that before turning around on it.  While we were heading out, a train car came and it honked SO LOUD!!!!!!!  And it kept honking.  My ears still hurt.  That was the scariest part of the trail.    

This morning, Bekah and I went for our premeet with Kep.  We ran down to the paved trail by the railroad, but this time we went the other way.  We ran out 2 miles and then turned around and ran back to the hotel.  Then we did strides and drills on the street.  Ice bath, coming soon.

This evening after watching the 800s, I started my warmup.  I just stayed near the track and ran around the parking lot area.  After about 20 minutes, I went up to the field for athlete warmup and did some strides and drills.  After those, I got my spikes and walked over to the final checkin with Kep.  The race plan was to settle in and not be moving around and up on the outsides and getting shuffled back, like what was going on last year.  Bekah and I got our hip numbers and then the officials walked us out onto the track.  We did a few strides on our way over to the line.  Bekah and I both got to start on the main waterfall line.  When the race went out I just went for an inside lane and ended up at the line between 1 and 2.  There was a lot of shoving going on, so I just had to be careful not to fall.  Our first lap was around an 87-88.  The next few laps still included a lot of shoving.  Someone was stepping on me and I almost fell, but fortunately I caught myself.  An Oregon girl elbowed me while cutting me off, so I elbowed her back and got back in front of her.  The next lap she cut in front of me and I was close enough to step on her ankles, so I might have punched her in the back.  We came through the mile in about 5:42 (I could be wrong, I wasn't really paying attention to time anyway).  There were a lot of splits around 83.  This was faster than what we had thought it would be, but we just went with it.  Between 2 and 3 miles into the race, some separation had started in the pack.  I was pretty far back, so I had to make a few moves on the straight parts to move up and work on being up to the lead group.  It was while doing this that I sorta realized I had let myself be too far back in the pack for too long.  Still, I just did my best to keep moving up one spot at a time.  I could hear the announcer naming Bekah in third for several laps, so I was really happy to hear that she was doing well at least.  During the next few laps, Kep was telling me not to press, and saying "cooldown" to me, meaning that I just needed to fade until the finish so I wouldn't wear myself out too much more and that I'd still be allowed to compete in the 5k on Saturday.  I really wanted to quit, so part of me was hoping that I could throw up so that I could drop out and have that as an excuse and still be elligible to compete Saturday.  But I also knew I wasn't racing hard enough to puke, so I just kept running.  With about 4 laps to go, I knew the leaders were behind me and about to lap me.  I was hoping to see Bekah, so I could encourage her on, but she never came.  With 2 laps to go I picked it up a little bit (not like crazy, there wasn't really anything to gain or lose) just for the practice of picking up pace.  I caught a few girls, and then going into the final lap I passed one more girl and then eased up, at least until the final 100 when I thought I could hear somebody coming.  Going down the final 100 I realized Bekah was just 2 places in front of me, I was sad to see that she had crashed and fallen back so much.  This was hard for both of us as we had been hoping to do so well.  I shouldn't have assumed it'd be just like last year.  This race was an honest race, and I didn't come ready to compete in one.  I let myself think it would be easier than it really was, and was careless going out and was not assertive with getting into a good position at all.  We are really glad we didn't scratch out of the 5k now, that is for sure!  We cooled down in the parking lots, I did 2.75 to finish at 12 total.    

This morning Bekah and I went for a run down on the trail we ran Wednesday morning.  Surprisingly, our legs didn't hurt that bad!  But our stomachs did.   We ran out to the 2 mile mark like Wednesday and then came back.  I wanted to go longer, so I continued on my own on the trail the direction we ran the first night we were here.  Hopefully with another day our stomachs will recover and we can make a good comeback in the 5k!  The place we ate dinner at on Wednesday is highly suspect for how we felt and performed last night...

About an hour before our race, Bekah and I started our warmup.  We did about 20 minutes before going back to the field for strides and drills.  I made sure to take my time and stretch out well, I had just a few tight areas.  I did a few strides after stretching and they felt much better than before!  We grabbed our spikes and headed to the final checkin 15 minutes before our race.  We were in heat 1, so we hoped that meant ours wouldn't go out crazy fast.  I was hip 4, so I was able get the second spot in lane 1 going out.  At the breakline, a bunch of girls from the waterfall start got ahead of my pack, but it was such a tight pack that I wasn't too worried, I just needed to focus on not falling or anything.  For about a mile I just stayed where I was at, then in the second mile I moved up and around on the outside.  For the next few laps I was in about 6th place.  The effort to be up here was hard, but I just let the pack pull me along.  I knew I needed to focus so I could stay up there.  To my left was Jessica from Stanford, coming up on 6 laps to go she tried to get out but I kept her in.  She did the same thing the next lap, but I wasn't able to keep her boxed in this time and she got out and picked up the pace.  This is when I fell off the pack.  From then I was determined to at least catch some of the girls who were also fallen off the pack.  I caught a few, and finished 15th in my heat.  Here is a link that has everyone's splits in my heat http://results.flashresults.com/2014_Meets/outdoor/05-29-NCAAWest/027-1-01.htm Not bad except when the pack dropped me...  For cooldown I did 3.5 miles, it took me exactly 30 minutes!  I am amazed I was able to run this race after doing a 10k only 2 days prior.  I hope that I can remember what the races felt like this year and be able to apply the knowledge that can be gained from them to future races, especially regionals next year.