9 am - 3 easy miles down Springville Main St. to wake up the legs. BYU Indoor Invite 3000m - 9:12.93 Well,
I went into the race with three goals: 1) don't get last, 2) break
9:00, and 3) at the very least, get a PR. Goal #2 wasn't quite there
today, but it was a good race, a good opener for the season, and it
makes me excited for what's to come. It's a little depressing
going to these races and not knowing anyone. High school track meets
were always a blast because you can just goof around until your race,
then goof around some more once your done. I couldn't help feeling a
little awkward and out of place next to the other guys on the line.
None of them knew me, but I knew most of them. I'm admittedly a huge
track nerd, but I never thought of myself as a stalker before.
Anyway, during my warm-up I felt great. I got in about 2 miles
45 minutes before the gun with a few race-pace strides. I knew that I
could hit the mile in 4:50 without much trouble, and if I could I felt
I would be close to that 9:00 mark. In any case, when the gun
went off, the pack was quickly leaving me in the dust at my 4:50 pace,
so I had to make a quick decision, whether or not to match pace. I've
always had a difficult time coming from behind, so I grabbed on to the
second pack that was forming and hung on. The first lap was 55 (5 laps
to a mile), and the quarter was 68 or 69 (sorry Ted, you told me so). It
was at that point that I kind of spaced out. The only coherent thought
I had from laps 2-7 was "Keep going!" All I could think of was not
getting left behind, and I was surprised when I went through the mile
in 4:44 (only two seconds slower than my time trial a few weeks ago!).
I hit 4 laps-to-go in 5:00, and all I had to do to get my goal was run
5:00 pace for 4/5's of a mile. Of course, my brain didn't put that
together till later, so I kept plodding ahead, not thinking about time,
not thinking about anything except keeping my body moving. In
retrospect, I feel that I ran a good race, but my biggest mistake came
at about lap 6. I had a Utah Valley guy 2 seconds up on me -- perfect
position to grab on to him and let him pull me along. But I regretably
let him go; he ended up at 9:06. He could have helped me through the
difficult laps 6-8, where I lost a lot of ground on the 9:00 guy. But,
as it was, I hit the bell lap in 8:15-8:16 and knew I had my PR, and a
57 second last lap sealed the deal. While I would have liked to run a
bit faster, I liked the race. I got out fast (maybe a little too fast),
hung on as best as I could, and it ended with a decent time. As I build
my miles and add in the speed stuff, I expect my times to drop
dramatically. Today's race was a good springboard for the rest of the
season. Complete results can be found here: http://www.byutrack.com/Various/Special/Meet_Info/2007-8/CougInInv/index.htm
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