Notes
Nationals has finally arrived. Going to start with the prologue to the race. Got up and did the shakeout with the A race people. Felt good during that. Ate a big breakfast since I wasn't going to race for a solid 5 hours. Kept sipping water and eating lightly all the way until my race. Didn't run too much during the other races so I wouldn't tire myself out. Warmup felt good as well and I felt relatively confident. The plan for the race was to stick with Frintner and Brad and get ourselves in a good position very early on in the race because that was our only chance to come back home with a trophy.
Race started off faster than I could ever imagine. Frintner took off right away and my goal was to not lose contact with him. Brad was behind me for a bit, but held back a lot since this first mile was going to be fast. Tried to settle in before the first mile, but it felt like everyone was just getting faster and faster, so there was never a chance to relax and get in a good position. As a result, I went through the first mile extremely fast. Clock at mile said 3:41, but I'm assuming that it was a minute off and it was actually 4:41. My mile PR is a 4:47. I definitely PR'd within that first mile. Went up through the first hill and started to really pay for going out too fast. Started to get passed badly and my breathing started to spiral out of control. Went through the 2 mile feeling like absolute shit. I was dangerously close to dropping out because I thought I wasn't going to be able to push myself, let alone finish the race. Brad caught me and moved up, he looked good through the first 2k or so. Once too many people passed me around the 2 mile, I got my breathing under control and tried to get myself back into it. Josh got me at the muddy hill and he looked like he was running very well, so I had to push myself as well. I knew that if I got through the second hill, I could be able to finish strong because that would have been the hardest part for the rest of race. Lots of teammates and lots of cheering both helped me push through that hill and I tried to move again. Saw that Brad wasn't too far from me actually. I guess the fast start got to him too. Made it through the huge downhill and tried to push myself through the last 300. Had absolutely nothing to give and I pretty much crawled through the finish.
Really disappointed in myself and the effort I put in. This was the healthiest I've ever been for Nationals, so I had high expectations for myself. The goal was to get in the top 30 so that I could put myself in the best position for getting our team a trophy. I pretty much ran this race just like the Illini Challenge my freshman year. Started out too fast and too hopeful and for the rest of the race pretty much crawled. After that first 2k, I mentally checked out, and was just trying to survive the rest of this race. I understand that given our circumstances, we had to go out hard to get the best chance of winning a trophy. It was a high risk high reward situation. I guess I haven't practiced enough front running to handle this kind of race. We definitely could have taken it slower, but not without forfeiting the gamble of getting a trophy. Some of us weren't able to handle the situation efficiently, but others(Josh and Frintner) responded well to this, and as a result, stepped up when some of us couldn't. Frintner ran excellently and so did Josh. I felt like I let them down by not being up there and helping them out. However, given that this was my first A race, I did not have any idea what to expect from this race. If I do get into the A race again, I'll have a better understanding of the nature of this race and what I need to do personally to run the best race I can possibly run. Also, the large amount of cheering throughout the whole race by my teammates and everyone else made this race less painful than it should have been. I have a lot of work to next summer, and I will make sure that I will be able to pull my own weight.
Looking back this whole season, it had a lot of ups and downs. For the ups, I had the most successful summer training among my 3 times I've trained over the summer, I went through Regionals and Nationals the healthiest I've ever been for those races, I've ran consistently in the top 7, my times were more consistent, I think I've made improvements as a racer, I didn't have any kind of nagging injury the whole season, and I got a PR this season as well. For downsides though, my summer training didn't really show in the season, I really didn't meet a lot of the goals I made (place in top 40 for Augie, place top 10 in Regionals, place top 30 in Nationals), I had a disappointing end to my season, that's all I can name for now. It's a little disheartening that all that summer training and fall training didn't show themselves at Nationals, but in my defense, I attempted frontrunning without preparing for what to expect. However, I still have a whole track season to look forward to, so I need to move on, and prepare for what I will make a stellar track season.