Notes
I woke up today feeling terrible and honestly didn't expect much out of today. In the back of my mind I knew I could PR but I had a lot of doubts going into the race. Julia let me into her house (thank you) at noon to let me brew up some coffee in Rileys Keurig (thank you.) Whipped up about 750 mg of caffeine worth and bottled it up. Napped for about an hour than drove up to NCC. Got there 2 hours before my race so I just sat up in the bleachers listening to my classic pre race hype music. 90 min before I chugged down the coffee, waited a bit, went to the bathroom, and warmed up about 50 min out. When I got back, Josh texted me that he was there which was super nice. I didn't really want spectators because I wasn't expecting to run well and I didn't want people to take time out of their day to come watch a mediocre race. Despite that, he still came (thank you.) Hung out with him right up until the gun. Having a familiar face was super helpful. I also saw a high school teammate of mine which was nice. I hadn't seen him in a while. I was coughing up mucus and other nasties right up to the start.
Gun went off and I tucked in back. We came through the first 400 in 66ish I think. I wasn't feeling good or bad, I was just on autopilot. Second 400 was around 68. Still just sitting in back letting the pack make the moves. With 500 to go I went for the pass and started shifting gears. With 400 to go I saw the clock at around 3:05 and I knew I needed a 64 to tie my PR, so I just let it rip. Closed in a 62.24 which shocked me. I wouldn't have believed it if they didn't show the closing 400 splits. I moved from 9th to 4th which was fantastic. I really want to run a 1600/1609 so I can set an official PR, but its nice seeing the converted time keep dropping every race. I ran a 4:39 1609 at Club Relays and now I'm running at 4:26 pace. Really pleased with that sort of progression.
Afterwards, I convinced Josh somehow to go back to St. Charles with me, so we drove to St. Charles North to catch the last race of high school sectionals. Talked to my old coaches and saw a bunch of East alumni there which was cool. We qualified a miler, 2 miler, and a 4x8 which also beat my old school record. Proud of the boys and the program has come a long way. Went and got Buffalo Wild Wings afterwards with the alums and Josh. I cant believe he was game for that either considering he didn't know anyone but me, but it was fun having him come. Theres never been a more heinous group of boys together but it was an absolute blast.
As for my plans now, I'm obviously done racing this season. However, I don't feel that I need to take time off like I traditionally do when a season ends. I haven't had a full 7 day week of running in a while, and I've only been over 50 mpw once since January. My legs still feel good and I don't feel burned out physically or mentally. I think I'll take this next week as just easy runs with friends or whenever I feel like running, and then get into base building for cross country. Its been a good season.