I think I finally made that 15:06 go away. Friday's race played out pretty well for me. I was able to sit back for about the first 3k before I had to pick it up and go for a solid time. I ended up winning in 14:31, feeling really good the whole time. I'll once again be competing in the NCAA Indoor Championships this upcoming weekend, running an automatic qualifying time the last week possible. On the one hand, I wish I would have qualified a lot earlier because it would have taken a lot of stress out of this weekend. I guess this is just as good, though, because I know that I am running well heading into the meet.It was really weird to think back a year and compare this race with the last time I ran 14:31 at our indoor track, qualifying for nationals in track for the first time as an individual. Last year, it was at a rather insignificant meet - there were very few spectators (I even told my parents not to come) and not much anticipation for the 5k that day. As the race played on, I was getting more and more excited about how well I was running; each lap completed at the faster than expected pace gave me more and more confidence. Finishing with a qualifying time that day was about as surprised as I have ever been following a race. I don't know how fast people expected me to run in my first 5k in over a year, but I know I easily exceeded those expectations.
This year, specifically the conference race, was far different from a year ago. Coming in to the race, expectations were way higher, both for me and the rest of the field. There were six guys in the race who had already broken 15:00 this year and I wasn't one of them. Everyone knew it was going to be a fast race, uncharacteristic of an MIAC showdown. The race went out really well, just a little slower than my overall desired pace. I didn't have to work very hard, at least for the first half. During that time, I once again gained more confidence with each lap completed. This time it wasn't because I was surprised at how fast I was going, but because the pace was feeling so easy so far. The crowd was definitely more excited than I was for most of the race - at one point I remember thinking "settle down, it's like a mile into a 5k race". Anyways, I only deviated from what Tim told me a little bit; he told me not to do any work until the last mile, but I started with about 2000m to go because I was sick of repeatedly getting cut off by David Swanson, who was doing a slalom-like thing in lane 1. I didn't really have a kick in this race, it was more of a gradual acceleration over the last 800. It ended up working and I was able to accomplish my two goals coming in to the meet, winning the 5000 and qualifying for nationals.
Each successful race brings more confidence going in to the next one, which is really important at this point of the season. Having done exactly 0 workouts so far, the races are really the only way to gauge how I'm doing in terms of training. Big things in varsity athletics are on the horizon.
Photo by John Biasi
