Notes
6.5 hrs of sleep. Worked half day and then drove to Philly, hit some traffic, but got there
with time to spare. Franklin Field had lots of energy and was full in the lower levels
when I got there. There were lots of people warming up and doing striders on the road.
Fast forward to 6:45pm, met my teammates for a very easy warm up run (about 18 mins),
stretched, and did a couple of striders. They lined us up quickly into corrals and we
waited for about 15 mins before we could enter the track (felt like cattle). There were about 25 teams
and they lined us up in different sections of the track. I checked with my teammates about
their race plans and they said they'd go out in 65-66 secs and 70 secs.
I was lined up on the outside of lane 9 and was told not to go past lane 8 until the last cone, 100m into the
race. As soon as the gun went off, I was in about 3rd place in my group with some people passing us
on the inside. Pace felt fine. By 100m I was in 2nd place in my group and we merged with the rest of the
field, leaving me in 8-10th place. By 250m I noticed that 2-3 guys had gone out pretty fast and had
gapped the field, I stayed with a smaller chase pack in 5-6th place. To my surprise, none of my
teammates was around, but I felt fine, so I kept going. Approaching the 400m mark I saw the clock and
it read 66, so I just kept going with it. Someone passed me and I followed, leaving our chase pack leader
behind. I felt fine and stayed with the runner that passed me until ~650m, when one of my teammates
passed me and the runner ahead of me, and I followed him (by this point I was in 4th place). I didn't see
my 800m split, but shortly past it I felt getting tight and my teammate opened a 3-5m gap. I think I
lost a bit of my concentration here as the runner we left behind passed me, but at the 1000m mark I
reacted and passed him again and started chasing my teammate. I got within 10m of him when my other
teammate flew by me leaving me in 5th place for this leg of the relay. I didn't like this much, but apparently
that lack of concentration cost me several seconds, as I saw the clock (after I was done) at 3:35.
Not too long after I stopped running I started coughing and had a scratchy throat, I presume because of the pollen count (I coughed for about 15-20 minutes). I felt fine about the run, perhaps I could have run closer
or under 3:30 if I had run a more evenly paced race and had remained focused, I have to practice that some
more. Our team ended up running 11:46.9 (6 secs slower than the A team) placing 5th overall (we got some
cool medals). Also, some relatives/friends took pictures and kept splits, here are mine:
1:09.4 1:09.4
2:19.9 1:10.5
3:32.0 1:12.1
I think the first one is off (corroborated by my teammate as well), but the ending time is probably about right. The event URL above is actually footage of the race. I can be seen at around the 20sec on the outside of lane 8 and at the first handoff (my team's uniform is a white singlet with mostly red shorts). I can be seen in the infield holding my head after my race... All in all, it was a great experience to run in Franklin Field.