(no subject)
For me, livejournal is the third tier of procrastination..it comes after email and facebook.
Yesterday I got back at 9:50 from the NCAA Division III National competition. I got 15th in the steeplechase.
I ran an 11:14..which was stinky. The week before I ran a 10:49, which would have placed 8th, and I would have been an All-American. Prior to the meet I had the 12th fastest time in the country (so I was a little disappointed about slipping to 15th). I went out realllly hard. I decided to run in 5th place so that I could still be All-American if 3 people passed me. I ran the first 400m in about a 77 (5:08 mile pace)...yeah...ouch...and finished up the first 800m in 2:41 (5:22 mile pace). Then I started getting slower each lap. My barriers got sloppy and a bunch of girls fell. My coach said that he thought it was the second lap that killed me, but he was excited while watching the race because I really went for it (albeit stupidly).
In case you don't know, steeplechase is a 3k event that is run over 35 wooden barriers (like hurdles that are solid), including 7 water jumps (that means that after one of the barriers there is a 12 foot long pit of water that you have to leap over...or fall into...). Most people (including me) land with one foot in the water. The world record for women is 9:01.59, set in 2003 by Gulnara Samitova of Russia. For guys it is held by Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar (formerly Stephen Cherono of Kenya) at 7:53.63 and was set on September 3, 2004. It was originally an event in which people on horseback raced over hedges from one steeple to another.
I have wanted to run steeplechase since the summer after my freshman year of high school (I did it a little at the Duke Running Camp I went to). It's a lot of the reason why I really wanted to do hurdles in high school.
3k steeple times are not too tricky to understand. They are pretty close to two mile times since the mile is 200m longer than the 3k (so I should be able to run a 10:49 2 mile). You can also predict your steeple time by adding around 45 seconds to your 3k time. A good way to think about 3k steeple times is Steeplechase times are pretty much equivalent to two mile times.
Surprisingly I wasn't that excited for Nationals. Isn't that weird? Even though qualifying for Nationals is a lot harder, I was more excited about making it to All-States in Cross Country my junior year of high school. I think that this was because I didn't make All-States my freshman or sophomore year and it was really hard for me to make it my Junior year. In DIII you qualify by hitting a certain time instead of getting a certain place at a regional meet (which is the way D1 does it), so it's not as stressful (for me). I was more excited about breaking the school record in steeple (10:49...down from 11:35 wooot!) than I was about qualifying for nationals, even though the later was harder. Prior to qualifying I got my coach to agree to be a vegetarian for a month if I did. Haha..
I am considering running this race against D1 people in a few weeks...top 3 get prize money...but so far there is only a 10:07 girl (who has graduated from college and is coaching!) and a 10:22 girl...both of which I have no shot of beating, and there is no one else entered. I only want to run it if someone around my time does.
Oh homework...and I have to pee...
Yesterday I got back at 9:50 from the NCAA Division III National competition. I got 15th in the steeplechase.
I ran an 11:14..which was stinky. The week before I ran a 10:49, which would have placed 8th, and I would have been an All-American. Prior to the meet I had the 12th fastest time in the country (so I was a little disappointed about slipping to 15th). I went out realllly hard. I decided to run in 5th place so that I could still be All-American if 3 people passed me. I ran the first 400m in about a 77 (5:08 mile pace)...yeah...ouch...and finished up the first 800m in 2:41 (5:22 mile pace). Then I started getting slower each lap. My barriers got sloppy and a bunch of girls fell. My coach said that he thought it was the second lap that killed me, but he was excited while watching the race because I really went for it (albeit stupidly).
In case you don't know, steeplechase is a 3k event that is run over 35 wooden barriers (like hurdles that are solid), including 7 water jumps (that means that after one of the barriers there is a 12 foot long pit of water that you have to leap over...or fall into...). Most people (including me) land with one foot in the water. The world record for women is 9:01.59, set in 2003 by Gulnara Samitova of Russia. For guys it is held by Saif Saaeed Shaheen of Qatar (formerly Stephen Cherono of Kenya) at 7:53.63 and was set on September 3, 2004. It was originally an event in which people on horseback raced over hedges from one steeple to another.
I have wanted to run steeplechase since the summer after my freshman year of high school (I did it a little at the Duke Running Camp I went to). It's a lot of the reason why I really wanted to do hurdles in high school.
3k steeple times are not too tricky to understand. They are pretty close to two mile times since the mile is 200m longer than the 3k (so I should be able to run a 10:49 2 mile). You can also predict your steeple time by adding around 45 seconds to your 3k time. A good way to think about 3k steeple times is Steeplechase times are pretty much equivalent to two mile times.
Surprisingly I wasn't that excited for Nationals. Isn't that weird? Even though qualifying for Nationals is a lot harder, I was more excited about making it to All-States in Cross Country my junior year of high school. I think that this was because I didn't make All-States my freshman or sophomore year and it was really hard for me to make it my Junior year. In DIII you qualify by hitting a certain time instead of getting a certain place at a regional meet (which is the way D1 does it), so it's not as stressful (for me). I was more excited about breaking the school record in steeple (10:49...down from 11:35 wooot!) than I was about qualifying for nationals, even though the later was harder. Prior to qualifying I got my coach to agree to be a vegetarian for a month if I did. Haha..
I am considering running this race against D1 people in a few weeks...top 3 get prize money...but so far there is only a 10:07 girl (who has graduated from college and is coaching!) and a 10:22 girl...both of which I have no shot of beating, and there is no one else entered. I only want to run it if someone around my time does.
Oh homework...and I have to pee...