Notes
When I graduated high school and heard about the run club at U of I, I had one goal I wanted to accomplish; beat my high school 1600m time of 4:31. Freshman year cross I got injured, and came back for club relays to run a 4:52. I gave up on that target and shifted my running goals away from the mile. But in the back of my mind I've always wanted that mile PR. Now, three years later, I finally got it. I also beat my 1609m time of 4:39 from club relays this year. 10 second improvement in 4 months which is awesome.
Now for the actual race. Had my standard coffee amount 90 minutes before the gun and just hung out with Leonel while we watched some of the other races. Warmup felt good, had some fruit snacks like 30 min before. Kellum told me that one of the guys in our heat is the world record holder for the indoor 4x800. Also there were some D1 guys and a couple names I recognized from high school like Ryan Clevenger. He beat my cheeks in literally every race in high school, so I was a little intimidated with the talent I was up against.
Gun went off and I tucked into last place and just hung onto the pack. I came through the first 409m in 69. Came through the 809m in 2:16ish, still in last. I started to move past a few guys who were starting to die. Didn't catch the time on the third lap, but I tried to kick it into gear for that final 400. My legs didn't respond. The 62 closing lap from NCC and the 63 from Nats was not there. I still negative split a little, but just didn't have that extra gear to go into. I know my NCC 1500m a month ago put me at 4:26 pace, so I wish I had gone a bit faster, but I still broke 4:30 for the first time and its June so its not a big deal to not be in the best shape. I also beat Ryan Clevenger by a couple seconds which was a plus. Great race from John, who ran a 4:28. Very excited moving forward. I've got some work to put in.