Notes
1500 at Augustana's Last Chance Meet. The weather was really muggy and I had a rough warmup. Everything felt heavy and I questioned if the 15-miler this week was still affecting me. I convinced myself that I would still be fine when the gun went off. I was ready for the start of this race and got out on the shoulder of the lead Augustana guys. One took off to the front and a couple others seemed to be running really fast so I tucked into 5th at a solid pace. We went through the 400 in 62 and I actually felt pretty good but got a little scared off of continuing with them. I got dropped by all 4 guys (maybe a 5th guy passed me too) on the next lap and hit the 800 around 2:08. I felt pretty good about that and had was feeling strong but for some reason I felt content to sit behind a guy for the rest of that lap. Around 1000 into the race, 2 of the Augustana guys dropped out (including the one right in front of me. The other two were well ahead but when I hit the bell I took off and caught two of them that were hurting on the back stretch. The other guy was coming back to me but I ran out of real estate in the end. I closed well but ended up just over 4 minutes. Finish line splits from Tyler Sullivan who was watching: 46, 65, 66, 62.
After the race I was a little disappointed with the 2nd and 3rd laps. The 3rd lap especially since I was feeling good but for some reason told myself to save it for the last 400. I need to let loose in a 1500 again instead of saving something. I think I could have handled the middle two laps a second or 2 faster and still closed about the same. I also need to stop thinking about 800 splits like they are a mile. 2:08 isn't fast enough or at least shouldn't give me a content feeling in the race. If I hear that in a 1500 I need to get going.
Overall I'm still happy with my track season and confident I could run faster in every track distance right now than I have this year. I'm not 100% healthy but it did feel good to have a full racing season again. I really enjoy racing and hope I can continue to feel good through another year of training and come back next year with plans for some PRs.