Friday, March 14 (10k race)

It's time to stop putting off the post-race analysis. I ran pretty poorly.
32:39, with splits of approx. 15:42, 16:57.
That doesn't look pretty.
I felt fantastic in the first six laps. I worked my way up through the field, coming through the mile in 5:00. My first lap was about a 78 since I was stuck in traffic, so I was dropping laps as fast as 73 early on.

After that I locked onto Kris Brown from CMS, who somehow recognized me as the beer miler without even turning back to look at me. After a couple of laps I went around him to chase down a tall runner in white up ahead.

I caught the guy, who I quickly learned was named Jason. I felt very good sitting behind him, but I thought he was going a little slower than 75's so after two laps or so I went around him. This was on lap nine or ten. When I did, I ran a 73 for the lap, and I started to feel tightness in my chest. It was a strange feeling that I don't get in training at all. My legs still felt fine, so I kept going, but I didn't shake Jason. He passed me back shortly, and as we came up on three miles I started to feel the pace in my legs as well. All at once, it became blindingly obvious that I was not in 31:15 shape or even very close to it.

When I saw this guy's uniform getting up further and further ahead, and came through three miles having slowed a little of 5:00 pace, I just didn't want to do it any more. If I wasn't going to run 5:00 pace, I didn't want to make myself suffer through a long, painful decline. In my mind, I just said, "fuck it", and cruised the second half trying to ignore the people cheering for me and the runners passing me. Some of them were even "unlapping" me - lapped runners passed me to get less than 400m behind again.

I had the dignity at least not to sprint like an idiot on the last lap and just finished the race. The CMS runner Kris and Mike Davies both broke 32:00 by a little, and the tall runner in white ran 31:17.

If you read my description of the race and think that my attitude was immature, I agree. It was not the attitude I would want to have displayed. I was just so disappointed to discover that the race wasn't what I hoped it would be, and that my physical conditioning was not on the level I had imagined, that I gave myself in to disillusionment. I had a pretty sour, unsportsmanslike attitude towards the race.

Of course there are lessons to be learned. I guess the first is not to be so stuck up. If you can't hit the time you want, it doesn't mean you should give up. You still have to make the best of the situation.

Second is patience. I should have stuck right behind Jason rather than passing him, running hard, and getting myself into quick trouble. He actually maintained 75's the whole way. He wasn't seeded anywhere near that, so congratulations to him for executing that strategy and running that race alone. I think that when I'm training now, I'll try to carry the image of this lone, slightly-gawky runner occasionally slowing a second or two, but bringing himself back every time, maintaining his composure as he laps people and even as he gets lapped, focusing on his task, and finally closing the last lap on an excellent race. That will be my ideal.

I'll be moving to 5000 now. I did feel very comfortable running the second-fastest 5000 of my life last night, so I know I can PR. I beat Chris Smith and ran faster than the CMS guys by some good margins at 3000 a month ago, and now they are all between 15:08 and 15:15 (nice job, Chris, by the way!). I'm not giving up on 15:00, but I don't want to make it the goal immediately. The last thing I want to do is become a slave to 72's the way I spent the last month enslaved by 75's.

I'll race at the Pomona Pitzer invite. There will be lots of good competition there, and the field won't be spread out and lonely like in the 10,000. The goal will simply be to run the race as a race, not a time trial, and to finish feeling like I went after it the way I know I should and can do. I hope that a bunch of those SCIAC guys are there and that we can all go after some great times together.

Speaking of which, Matt had a good 1500, while John Mering had a slightly-better one and DeMar had an awesome one (great to see him again, and see him tearing it up like that).



Filmed from the stands above the homestretch. It's a little shaky, and the original, nice video has been reduced down to youtube quality, but you still get a nice view of Kiesz, DeMar, and Mering battling it out. CMS had two freshman at 4:02 and 4:04 as well, so there's some talent in the conference for 1500 as well as 5000 this year.

Also, Jake from Redlands had a much better race than last week, going 1:55.

KB broke her own school record for 10,000, although I think she can go even faster. Sub 20:00 is within reach by the end of the month. Best also ran a great 5000, and Stephanie worked her way onto the all-time list at 1500.

Garrett PR'ed at 1500 with his first-ever sub 5. I'm maybe happiest to see that of all the performances at the meet. He's been working at it for a couple of years, but keeps the most amazingly positive attitude towards the sport despite constantly battling injuries. It's not easy having to pace yourself while the rest of the pack goes out ahead each race, but Garrett's been getting better and better. Maybe soon he will not have to let that pack go - he'll be in it. So great job Garrett on that race.

Sachith has some major difficulties with pacing. Even though we talked about it several times, both in reference to his previous 3000's and in planning for this 5000, he went out in 5:12. So that's what we have to work on. After the meet, he expressed his desire to run under 17:00. What I don't think he understands is that he is already at 16:45 fitness, but has to give himself a goddamn chance in order to actually run the race. As in 5:30, 5:25, 5:20, 30 = 16:45. (If you don't think Sachith can run the last 200 in 30 seconds, you might be right, but he can run it in 32. He's faster than he looks.)


Conclusions:
Personal: Time to focus on 5000, don't be such a maniac about times and deflate the ego a bit.
Team: Things are coming together as well or better than any other of my 4 years here. Matt is on track for nationals once he get his kick together, and everyone else is on track for PR's, SCIAC finals, and general good times and awesomeness all around.