Whoa There Fella'
One thing that has always been perfectly clear, certainly to me, is that you can not go out in a race faster than you can finish it. Tonight I went out in 64. I did not plan on running 4:16 pace so why would I do that? When the thought "you are going too fast" runs through your mind right away, it is trouble. The race just started so fast that I was in third to last place in 64. So you can run the pace you know is correct and be in no man's land and hope to catch up to everyone else or say race the race and see what happens. A slow ugly death is what happens.
If nothing else the contest showed I have good fitness because you can't split 4:26, 9:03 and not be fit. Unfortunately that is where the wheels came off the wagon and I flew home in 4:55 or so. So i managed 14:40 which was 19th place. I am certain if the pace was more 4:32, 9:04 I could have finished much stronger. Next time I will be sure not to start too fast. The winner from Lasalle was impressive and ran 13:5x. I was too depressed to look at the results. Maybe tomorrow.
It was only the second race of the season and my first fast 5k attempt on the track in 2 years. Two solid weeks of training before the next big race at BU (valentine meet) and all will be right with world.
There was a lot of other action at the track though. Steve Slattery, ex buffalo, ran a smoking 3k in 7:51 which is always impressive to watch. Then he came back to rabbit zach smith in the mile and zach cracked the 4:00 barrier in 3:59.68. He was very excited and shared his excitment with the crowd. My old training buddy Derek Treadwell is back at it in the mile and ran 4:07 which was great to see.
Tonight I will stretch out well getting ready for my Sprint Medely relay leg at the Reebok indoor Games. See what I can burn a 400 in. It will be interesting.
Oh yeah, wore a new pair of New Balance spikes tonight and they were nice. Only 4.7 ounces. That's nice and light.