Notes
USR 5k
Very happy with this race. Was more excited to race this one because some of my friends were racing this 5k as well, so that got me even more pumped. I decided to experiment with this race a bit by adjusting my diet. I always struggled with morning workouts/races so I had a heavier breakfast than usual, but not too much that I felt super full, and I had some coffee an hour before the race to wake myself up. Did the typical warm up, but no G1 primer.
At the front of the line, I saw the guy who won last year, which was about 15:20. So, I decided that I was not going to stick with him because going for a PR was right now unreasonable. Once the gun went off, I took off right away, but I went out the first 50 meters so fast that I was right behind the first place guy and some random runner. I immediately backed off and stayed smooth up that first hill. The other runner died at this point and suddenly I was in second. Going down the hill, Buser and some other guy passed me. I stuck with Buser and let the other guy go. The rest of the race was pretty much me racing against Buser. I got really winded after 2k and just tried to hang onto him for as long as possible. Whenever I was creating a gap, I covered it immediately. However, I lost too much contact with him on the last hill, but based on the spectators, no one was behind me for a while, so I kinda coasted towards the finish. Nearly threw up again, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Apparently, there was a very wide time gap between me and 5th place, so the race was separated into the front pack and everyone else. After I finished, I headed backwards in the course to run with Joe who was just finishing his. After everyone finished, we had some nice chatter before the awards went off. Unfortunately, they started with the oldest division after the top 3 finishers so I ended up waiting 20 minutes for them to call everyone else. Still walked away with a trophy. Since I never won something like this, it was a very cool first experience.
Positives: Got myself to a good position very early in the race and stuck with Buser for most of it. Got 4th place overall and 1st in my age group!
Negatives: Lost too much contact with him with less than a mile to go and did not kick at all. Nearly threw up again, but I think that's just something I gotta get used.
Overall: Solid effort for just a few days of running. Very promising track season. Just gotta keep putting in the time and doing what I need to do to race as well as I can. No more racing for two months.
*Also, if anyone wants to read my nationals race, I finally put it up. Took a while for me to digest everything before putting it up.