Notes
15:57.87 5000m @ NIRCA Nationals. Damn does it feel good to have that time start with a 15. Onto the race, ended up in the fast heat which turned out ot be less than ideal, but tried to make the best of it. Felt real good going out, hit the 400 in ~72 which is the fastest I have ever taken out a 5k before, felt good, but knew I had to back off a bit. Had a moment around 500 in where I stepped off the gas jsut a tad and got passed and looked behind me and saw nobody, and knew at that point that this race was going to require a lot of work on my part. hit the 800 in ~2:26 and still felt good, but was a few meters off the field at that point. Hit the 1600 in 4:59.4 felt good, but was all on my own. Tried to stay focused on those who were at the back of the pack/starting to drop off and not lose too much ground too quickly, basically just tried to focus on staying on the gas as its too easy to get comfortable when running alone. Second 1600 was a 5:13.5 (new 3200 pr lmao 10:12.98). Which was more of a slowdown than I wanted and I got worried about breaking 16. By this point those who had fallen off the main pack had started to come back to me, or at least were not getting farther away, which was big mentally. That last 1600 was basically just pure pain, every lap I hit the clock and felt like I was losing sub 16. Hit 1200 to go in and needed a 3:49, 800 to go needed a 2:30 and each time I honestly did not think I had it in me, but I kept pressing. When I've pictured breaking 16 I always hit 400 to go in 14:45 and know that I have it, but that is not how it happened at all. Hit 400 to go in 14:48/49 and honestly thought I was going to end up running like 16:01, but still poured all I had into the last lap. I remember thinking back to those 68 second 400s at the end of that workout a few weeks ago and just needing to summon that strength. Hit the last 100 and was getting close to 2 guys I'd been chasing for a while and I thought about how pissed I would be if I missed sub 16 by something close so I just fucking hit that last straight with all I had. Saw the clock with about 50 to go and kinda knew I had it, ended up beating one guy to avoid finishing last in the heat (shoutout to Zoe's dad for believing in me lol). Must have closed that last 400 in sub 70 which I've very surprised by. Overall a pretty weird race. Almost an entirely solo effort from 800-4800 which kinda sucked, but I managed to run a pretty decent race and didn't give in which I am proud of. Still think that I am in close to 15:40 shape on the right day, but I have run too many bad 5ks not to enjoy this PR. Wow this is probably the longest race report I have ever written, sorry for putting you through this you must be really interested in my running if you made it this far lmao.