Anyway, with that bit of backstory, you can see why I couldn't resist throwing my hat into the ring and running it this year, especially having PR'd at it the last time I ran. I decided to run the 5k, and I will defer to my running log for my thoughts on the race:
Going into this race I thought that if I had a solid day I would run 14:25. I did not account for two things. Obviously #1 is the Swarthmore magic. #2 is that I seriously have never been in a race so perfectly set up for me to win. The weather was very warm and humid but by race time it wasn't too bad.
There were 93 guys on the entries for the 5k so it got split into 3 heats, which still meant that after scratches there were almost 30 guys in each heat. I was #11 seed which was ideal, since I was on the first line of guys and pretty far out on the line which meant that I could avoid traffic for the first 200m. Got out well but it was a slow start so there was some traffic jamming. After a guy at the finish line told us we just ran a 37 opening 200, the rabbit from Haverford elbowed his way up to the front and cut that shit out. I weaved my way up to the front pack that was already breaking away.
For the next 2 miles the race progressed very well. I was at the end of the front group of 5 guys including myself and the rabbit. The rabbit was consistently running 68.x which was perfect effort for me. One the rabbit dropped the pace slowed down from 68-69 to 71 and even a 72. After about two laps of that nonsense I took the lead with ~900m to go. The slow laps had let me rest up and I basically knew I had the race in the bag. Picked it up with 800 to go but not a real kick yet. With 400 to go I had dropped everybody but I kicked hard anyway and closed in 60-61.
Encouraging result and I know I can go faster, so it almost makes me want to do another one. Finding high caliber track races this time of year is tough though.
There were 93 guys on the entries for the 5k so it got split into 3 heats, which still meant that after scratches there were almost 30 guys in each heat. I was #11 seed which was ideal, since I was on the first line of guys and pretty far out on the line which meant that I could avoid traffic for the first 200m. Got out well but it was a slow start so there was some traffic jamming. After a guy at the finish line told us we just ran a 37 opening 200, the rabbit from Haverford elbowed his way up to the front and cut that shit out. I weaved my way up to the front pack that was already breaking away.
For the next 2 miles the race progressed very well. I was at the end of the front group of 5 guys including myself and the rabbit. The rabbit was consistently running 68.x which was perfect effort for me. One the rabbit dropped the pace slowed down from 68-69 to 71 and even a 72. After about two laps of that nonsense I took the lead with ~900m to go. The slow laps had let me rest up and I basically knew I had the race in the bag. Picked it up with 800 to go but not a real kick yet. With 400 to go I had dropped everybody but I kicked hard anyway and closed in 60-61.
Encouraging result and I know I can go faster, so it almost makes me want to do another one. Finding high caliber track races this time of year is tough though.
Obviously I was happy with the way the race went, and winning is always a great feeling. Now that that's over, it leaves me wondering what the rest of my year holds, which will be told in the next entry...
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