Notes
Ended high school track on a great note! PR'ed in the 2mi; simply ran great.
Not everything was perfect going into the race, but I had been preparing myself well. Coleman's final week of training leading up to this was great (10:00 tempo at 20sec/mile slower than 3k pace) felt good, and then I got rested pretty well. It was nice running with my normal friends in varsity again (hadn't been with them on many runs over the past 2 weeks). Also got 9 hrs of sleep each nice this entire week, so I think that helped my body heal up.
Arms were a little sore from weight lifting in gym class on Thursday. Left knee's been kinda sore off and on, but didn't even bother me today. My biggest concern appeared during my striders--a sharp pain developed in my spine, halfway down my back. I particularly felt it when I turned/twisted my body to the side. Ended up only hurting for about 2 seconds, 800m in, but I didn't feel it or simply ignored it for the rest.
Great weather (warm and a little sunny, but not hot). Windy during warm-up, but I didn't even think about it during the race).
Odd pacing. The top seeds in the league went to slow, but that kept the back seeds in one big pack with them, pulling us a little too fast (71sec 1st lap). My time dropped pretty markedly by the second lap, but without trying I picked it back up on the 3rd lap. After that I slowly worked my way forward, passing 4-5 guys ("forward momentum"). I could feel the fatigue setting in with 3 laps to go, but I kept working. Only got passed by 2 guys the entire race (after things settled out from the 1st lap), and that was during the last backstretch (I'm always pretty bad with my final lap kick). Tried to pass a Souderton kid in my last 100m, almost caught him, but then he pushed a little bit harder just to keep me at bay. Finished within 1 second of 2 other runners.
Seeded 19th, finished 19th, just behind 2 other guys. Felt good. Decently big PR. I love racing right now!
Splits
1- 71 (fast)
2- 2:29 (78, slow)
3- 3:45 (Perfect 5:00 split for a mile, good that I pulled my pace back to 76)
4- 5:04 (WOW!) (79)
5-
6-
7- 9:13
8- 10:34 (81, okay, but would have liked sub-80).