Notes
Felt really terrible going into this race. Had a vito from Jimmy John's at 12:30 and thought that was enough of a time buffer to quench the acidity over time of the italian seasoning, but that turned out to not be the case. Jess gave me some tums pre-warmup, but after the warmup I just felt gross. Had a half hour and just prayed it would get better. Took a shot of pepto about 5 minutes before the race. Suffice it to say I did not have the best mentality going in.
All that being said, this went as well as I could have asked for. I thought on a really good day, maybe I would run around 4:35, but not in this race. Jordan helped out with pacing, but really I just focused on not letting too much of a gap form between the front of the race and me. After the first 400, I thought that I would be spewing before the race finished, but that whole time I was just running 35s. I hit the 800 in 2:21 and still thought I would spew, but just kept plugging. At this point, people started fading and I noticed that while there was no point I had felt good, I was not feeling worse. Meanwhile those around me who began the race feeling good, were feeling much worse than me. I started to be more aggressive, did not give up the rail at all because I wanted absolutely no extra steps. Made a few illegal moves for sure (had probably 5 or 6 steps inside lane 1, but it was on the straightaway so I was ok with it). Shoved a kid out of the way so I could keep running on the rail. With two laps to go, Jordan was still waving at me to get going, so I picked it up a bit because I figured if he was feeling so good, I should start running stronger. Gap closed between me and the front at this point and when we hit the bell I was only about 5-10 meters back of 1st. Some kid on club flew by me on the back stretch - I didn't have that gear, but I almost got Declan in the end - he held me off by .4. Think I took 4th or 5th.
This race hurt and is probably the happiest I have been in being able to manage pain during a race - in college I would have just checked out and ran 4:50, but I held strong, ran the pace I knew I could run and closed pretty well (32). If I can take this mentality into the half, that will help very much in the middle to late miles.