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Penn State-Behrend

September 17, 2011 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Good

Comments:
Sleep: 7hrs.

Warmed up about a mile and a half then dide pre-race prep including bathroom, taping my right foot, spiking up, uniforms, etc. I had been planning to pack it up with the freshmen but Barnes told Me, Jeff and Caleb to pack it up and come through the first mile around 6:00.

Caleb broke off from us early on and Jeff and I paced ourselves through at 5:51. We passed some people on the hill right after the mile. The next mile I tried to maintain pace, slowing somewhat to come through 2 miles at 12:01. At this point I was worried that I wouldn't meet my minimum goal of dropping a minute from last years time here (31:49). I still felt pretty fresh through three miles at 18:15, but wasn't happy with how much I was slowing down. This was where the race really started for me. Just before mile 4 I passed one guy and there was another guy just ahead of him from Buffalo State. I sort of gestured to the guy I was running next to indicating we should go for a split-pass, but he wasn't down, so I passed the guy myself. I pushed the pace back down and came through 4 at 24:25 before heading up the hill for the last time. The two guys I'd caught like 400m earlier passed me back here. Not okay with that. At this point I was worried that I wasn't making it hurt enough, but after ascending the hill and lengthening my stride on the straight, I felt a slight wave of nausea hit me, and thought, okay, let's save that for AFTER the race. I kept cruising through about 800 to go and realized that Jeff was still pretty close behind me. As I was coming along the ridge toward the finish, I saw the Buffalo State kid and told myself that if I didn't try to catch him, I wasn't 'competing like hell'. Catch him I did and as I rounded the hairpin onto the final straight, I started moving. I could hear people cheering for him behind me and picked it up some more hoping to hold him off, and then he blew by me like I was standing still. It was ridiculous.

Barnes set a 15 minute minimum barefoot cooldown, which wasn't fun because my calves felt like rocks, but I made it through. No issues with my right foot either which is great.

Anyway, I was okay with this one. Not particularly happy, but it's a decent starting point. I still need to make it hurt more. I still need to have that fire to keep people from catching me up the hill and I need to learn to get into my real kick more easily. But the time shows that I've progressed some from last year and the pacing for this race was good overall, leaving me with a lot to work with come mile three. I just need to use all that energy to pass people and fight off their countermoves through four and five. Time to get rolling with the rest of the season. There are two weeks to all-Ohio. I want to drop 50+ seconds from this race to that one, so I have to make sure I'm doing everything to make me a better runner. I'm pumped for the rest of the season. Let's do this!