(no subject)
well, the meet couldn't have gone much better, much to my surprise.
i woke up friday morning feeling like shit, like i have all week. still not being able to get full breaths. it happens about twice a year, lasts for about four or five days, and kills my running while i have it. we still have no idea what it is. i had all kinds of tests run my senior year of high school, and everything came back negative. guess it's just something i have to deal with. on the way to tallahassee, i was still feeling pretty much like straight-up crap, and took a nap for a few hours before the race. woke up about an hour before the 5000, and then warmed up and stuff. still couldn't breathe, still felt like crap, and was just accepting the fact that it was going to be a shitty race. bummer.
the race started. i actually felt okay the first couple laps, but hey, who doesn't?? i figured my breathing would start up soon. but then, i hit the mile in 4:48, and i was still feeling decent, so i decided to stop being cautious and just make a four-alarm rush for a PR. the fifth and sixth laps went by, and i was still in a pack of about eight people, and then on the seventh lap, everybody and their mother decided to pass me. i didn't know this till later, but just about everyone else ran a 71 or under on that lap, and i had hit a 74. but almost all of them went too soon, and immediately i started to pick people off. came through 3K in 9:05 (which is what i raced for that same distance a month ago, without another five laps to go), and two miles in 9:42. i kept picking people off in the ninth and tenth laps, just focusing on maintaining pace for as long as possible. and the funny thing was, the crowd and random other people were yelling at and cheering for people behind (BEHIND!!) me who had destroyed me by like full minutes in high school. j.p. cook, david forry, people i wouldn't even have been mentioned in the same breath with two years ago. the eleventh lap was probably the worst. i could feel everyone else gathering their wits and guts for a final drive, and so i took advantage and actually started my kick early, about six hundred meters (a lap and a half) out. i hit 11.5 laps (1 lap to go) in 14:02, and i had no idea i was going that fast. i had never even dreamed i would run that fast at the first meet, especially since i wasn't feeling 100%. the last lap was straight-up hellacious. i passed about six people who had passed me earlier in the seventh lap, and i didn't start falling apart until about 50 meters to go. one of them got me back, but by then i didn't care. i can honestly say that in any given race, by the end, i'm probably running at about 96 or 97% effort, but that was the hardest i've ever come in, probably closer to about 99%. i stumbled over the line, narrowly avoiding faceplanting in lane 2 because some girl caught me, and i honestly thought i had run about 15:20 or so, because that last lap felt like slow motion.
but then, probably the best part of the night happened: padilla and miller came running over saying, "you ran 15:09!! you ran 15:09!!"
13th place in 15:09.45. full results: http://seminoles.collegesports.com/sports/c-track/stats/030306aaa.html
i was like, whoa. 15:09 for a 5K is about 4:51 per mile, and i can remember when i could barely run a mile in five minutes. ever since i was old enough to know what a 5K was, fifteen minutes had been this magical number that i dreamed of attaining, but probably never would. and now, at the first meet of the season of my sophomore year, i come ten seconds away from breaking it. i think this was a monumental breakthrough, now that i know i have the speed and strength to do it. it's just a matter of powering through those middle laps and shutting off my mind until the last two laps.
next week, i'd say the goal time is 14:57. ;)
i woke up friday morning feeling like shit, like i have all week. still not being able to get full breaths. it happens about twice a year, lasts for about four or five days, and kills my running while i have it. we still have no idea what it is. i had all kinds of tests run my senior year of high school, and everything came back negative. guess it's just something i have to deal with. on the way to tallahassee, i was still feeling pretty much like straight-up crap, and took a nap for a few hours before the race. woke up about an hour before the 5000, and then warmed up and stuff. still couldn't breathe, still felt like crap, and was just accepting the fact that it was going to be a shitty race. bummer.
the race started. i actually felt okay the first couple laps, but hey, who doesn't?? i figured my breathing would start up soon. but then, i hit the mile in 4:48, and i was still feeling decent, so i decided to stop being cautious and just make a four-alarm rush for a PR. the fifth and sixth laps went by, and i was still in a pack of about eight people, and then on the seventh lap, everybody and their mother decided to pass me. i didn't know this till later, but just about everyone else ran a 71 or under on that lap, and i had hit a 74. but almost all of them went too soon, and immediately i started to pick people off. came through 3K in 9:05 (which is what i raced for that same distance a month ago, without another five laps to go), and two miles in 9:42. i kept picking people off in the ninth and tenth laps, just focusing on maintaining pace for as long as possible. and the funny thing was, the crowd and random other people were yelling at and cheering for people behind (BEHIND!!) me who had destroyed me by like full minutes in high school. j.p. cook, david forry, people i wouldn't even have been mentioned in the same breath with two years ago. the eleventh lap was probably the worst. i could feel everyone else gathering their wits and guts for a final drive, and so i took advantage and actually started my kick early, about six hundred meters (a lap and a half) out. i hit 11.5 laps (1 lap to go) in 14:02, and i had no idea i was going that fast. i had never even dreamed i would run that fast at the first meet, especially since i wasn't feeling 100%. the last lap was straight-up hellacious. i passed about six people who had passed me earlier in the seventh lap, and i didn't start falling apart until about 50 meters to go. one of them got me back, but by then i didn't care. i can honestly say that in any given race, by the end, i'm probably running at about 96 or 97% effort, but that was the hardest i've ever come in, probably closer to about 99%. i stumbled over the line, narrowly avoiding faceplanting in lane 2 because some girl caught me, and i honestly thought i had run about 15:20 or so, because that last lap felt like slow motion.
but then, probably the best part of the night happened: padilla and miller came running over saying, "you ran 15:09!! you ran 15:09!!"
13th place in 15:09.45. full results: http://seminoles.collegesports.com/sports/c-track/stats/030306aaa.html
i was like, whoa. 15:09 for a 5K is about 4:51 per mile, and i can remember when i could barely run a mile in five minutes. ever since i was old enough to know what a 5K was, fifteen minutes had been this magical number that i dreamed of attaining, but probably never would. and now, at the first meet of the season of my sophomore year, i come ten seconds away from breaking it. i think this was a monumental breakthrough, now that i know i have the speed and strength to do it. it's just a matter of powering through those middle laps and shutting off my mind until the last two laps.
next week, i'd say the goal time is 14:57. ;)