Well I'm back after a many month hiatus. What's happened?
Last semester ended, Baltimore and most of the east coast got snowed on, then we had winter break, which was lovely as always. Got to watch Tim and Mo eat 6 egg whites for speed at 2am, only for it to be a complete blowout. Then intersession led to my return to campus, where I continued my winter mileage and took 2 classes, one on leadership, and one on embedded systems. The former was great, the latter, not so great. And I ran my first indoor 3K of my life at UMD, and I ran a 5K at Bucknell a few weeks after. And 2nd semester started somewhere in there. And then Baltimore got snowed on again. And again. And again. We are the snowiest city in the country. The amount of snow everywhere is ridiculous, and I've spent far too much time in the pool and on the treadmill lately. Which brings me to yesterday's race.
3K @Haverford, last meet before Conference Championships. Need to run a 9:17 or better to qualify. That translates to 37.13333 sec per lap or better. So basically I needed to hit a huge PR and run a PR at the mile mark as well, around 4:56 or so. So there were 37 entries for the 3K, and we were split into only 2 heats. Terrible idea. There were 17 in heat one, and 20 in heat two.
How do 20 college athletes start a 3K race? I'm not sure, because I shot off the start line into 2nd and had no inkling of what happened behind me. I sat in 2nd on the inside until close to the break line at the 100m mark, when the top 4 seeds would get to move in. So I moved up with them just before the break and sat in 5th. Then the pack behind me started to creep up, so I moved out yet again and asserted myself into 2nd place. That all happened in the first 1.5 laps or so.
Lap 2 was run in a 38. Unacceptable, and I moved up and decisively passed into first place on the back stretch, pulling ahead by ~20m, gapping the field. It was the craziest thing I'd ever done in a race, and I was really feeling the adrenaline at this point. Never having been at the head of a race by such a large margin before, I just kept pushing as best as I could on my own. My teammates were all on their feet cheering me on and pushing me through, it was phenomenal. My arms were tingling from the effort, and I crossed the first 1000m in 3:07, basically right on pace. And as I tried to relax into the 2nd 1000, I somehow missed a gear or something, and all the amazingness started to fall apart by the 1200 or 1300m mark. I was getting passed like I wasn't moving. My legs felt like lead and the more I pushed the slower I felt. There was no 'pop' left, I'd spent it on the first part of the race. I ended clearing the first mile in 5:05, which was far slower than planned, and was barely able to finish the race (10:02).
Though I'm disappointed that I didn't qualify for conferences, I'm really glad and thrilled that I made such a bold and decisive move in a large race. Now if only I don't die in the next race, I'll be all set. My eyes are on the outdoor season now, with more volume and some quality training in store for me between now and the first outdoor meet.
It's also lent. And of course, it would be inappropriate to be giving up anything other than ice cream right? So indeed that's what I'm putting down. That just means I'll have more time to blog right?
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