View Workout (Chris Kelly)
Nationals Log
June 5, 2013 (Morning)
Exercise Type: Run
Comments:
Hey so I'm just settling down after I got back from all my trips. I really want to just put down my thoughts from Nationals and the season and my career in general. Hopefully you guys don't mind.
So basically everything was fine on the warmup. I could pee in there but once you were in they really didn't let you leave the warmup area so I was really glad I had already jogged my warmup before heading to check in.
First think I learned: Get there early, Check in time began one hour before the first heat started (7:30). I got to the table at 7:33. I was the last one to check in. So that was kinda weird. Also we got a new number at the table. In addition to the two hip numbers I wore and the competitor number on my back they gave me another bib number with the hip number on it. So I had to put that on... Sooooo many 6's.
At that point I hugged Coach and started warming up on my own. This kinda sucked. It was just weird going through everything by myself when most every other race has teammates. I just kinda drilled in silence. It was weird also because a bunch of girls were also melting down around me. Like full on tears everywhere. I really didn't know what to make of that. Later I found out that Mary Mahony form Mount hurt herself and then they scratched their 4x4. Probably would lead to a meltdown from anyone.
So after drilling they had us all gather in for the walk over. That was weird too. Basically they got us all together and we walked as a group from this building across the street from the track over to a tent by where the 100m starts. Everyone was very quiet and I definitely was nervous but honestly I felt pretty calm. I just wanted to get out and run.
They corralled us again in the tent. We weren't allowed to go onto the track but we were allowed to go in this field behind the track and warmup some more. At this point we also found out that the dec 400m would go before us so we'd have a bit extra time. So I finished drilling and did strides. Someone brought over a hurdle since there weren't any originally so I did some short runovers too. Felt like I warmed up pretty good and that my hurdles were also pretty smooth.
I watched the first heat go. Looked honest to me and as I was walking over to the start I heard one of the other coaches yell the winning rime and time for 9th place in the last heat. Both times seemed honest but manageable to me.
We got like one stride on the back stretch and them we were off. Got into good position early and just tried to concentrate on the hurdles. Had one rocky barrier the first lap but felt like I was settling into a rhythm.
But them I crashed the barrier in the second barrier lap coming to 1k. I'm not exactly sure what happened. I was in a good position up front on the outside giving myself a clean run at each barrier. Unfortunately I caught my trail leg knee coming over. I really don't know what happened. One second I'm going over the next I'm down on the track and the pack is away. Later CoachL and I settled on that I was clipped. Someone probably unintentionally hit my trail leg with their arm and caused it to go into the hurdle. So just a bad break. Initially I got up and thought I had a chance to catch them, but by the next barrier I knew that was most likely no go. I just couldn't run normally and my hurdles were pretty crappy because I couldn't get any push when jumping with my right leg and coming down on it was even worse. The water barrier was more of the same only magnified. So basically I struggled home the rest of the race.
I never thought about quitting or was embarrassed. In practice leading up CoachL was very clear she'd basically hate me if I quit. And I never was going to besides. I did my best for what I was given on that day and I am proud of it. I'm just a bit disappointed that something I feel was out of my control caused me to not be able to show what I had that day. It's not that I was out of shape or not fast enough to make the final. I just caught a bad break and was kinda out of the race from then on.
But looking back that's the event. Things happen. I've been very lucky in my career to get lucky breaks in races and this time it just didn't happen. It is what it is and I moved on. It did kinda suck seeing 9:08 get All American but I can honestly say I did my best and did all I could in my Nationals race. I definitely felt much different walking away then I did in cross. Much more satisfied that I had done the best thing for me.
This season was very different for me than cross. I took things a lot less seriously than i did in cross. I just trained, had fun, and didn't worry about it very much. And I actually ran a lot faster. I made nationals and was back to at least the shape I was in sophomore year if not a bit better. This will definitely shape how I train for things going forward.
For most of track I knew I was taking things less seriously than I did in cross. It was hard when I went through indoors and didn't really get much better. I ran solid but I didn't really achieve what I was hoping for and at that point I really just gave up seeing pr's again. I set my sights on trying to score points at conference and help the team a bunch. But I really had no thought to continuing on after that meet. I figured that would be the end for me.
It's strange. I let that go and that when I started having the most outdoor success I've really ever had. I got back to sub 15, and was really competitive in all my races. I scored the most points I've ever scored for the team in one meet. And I accomplished some of the lofty goals that I set for myself at the beginning of indoors. All in all it was a great season for my and a great way to cap off my collegiate running experience. I definitely wouldn't have changed any of it.
I look back on my four years and just wonder at all the changes that have happened. Coming in freshman year I was just an out of shape freshman who was a little full of himself. I got knocked down a ton that first season and have risen up a better person for it. That first season the team was last at UAA's in cross. One person broke 26 the entire year. I also got the feeling that they thought they couldn't run with the runners in the UAA. They were scared and didn't think they could be competitive in the conference.
That all has changed, at least from my perspective. I feel like now we can field a competitive team that is fighting for top honors in the conference and scores points in track. We have several returners that were better than any of us freshman year and will continue to lead the team well going forward. We as no longer scared when we toe the conference start lines. We know we can be competitive and kick some ass out there.
I'll leave you all with my pr's with my years in college (I hope to maybe improve a couple of these in the next couple years). I hope these will serve as times you guys can shoot for so that the team can be made better in the future.
400: 52.3
800: 1:58.71
1500: 3:58.56
mile: 4:18.70
3000: 8:54
3000SC: 9:07.23
3200: 9:27
5000: 14:53.37
8000XC: 25:14