Notes
Motown Mile, Official time was 4:58. It didn't show any decimals.
Leah and I rolled in around 12:45 to pick up our packets. A little bit early but not too bad. Her race was at 2:00 and my "elite" (Sub 5) heat was 2:25. I had made a mental note that I was NOT going to warm up too early like I did at the last race we ran. That didn't work out, because I ran into Tyson and he asked me to warm up with him at like 1:30. Did a couple miles and I was annoyed we still had 45 minutes to our race, which was when I was originally planning to warm up. I hung out with Leah near the starting line and did leg swings and some stretching while waiting for her to start. Watched her start, then jogged over to about the halfway point, starting doing drills, and cheered her on. Thankfully that was also pretty close to the finish line, so I watched her close (7:00!!) before going back over to the car to change into my singlet and flats and then jog back over to the start. A little more active than I would have liked to be before a race but it was worth it in the end.
Decided on the vaporfly's because they were a little bit lighter than the Alpha's and even though they are pretty worn out, I didn't think I would really need all the extra pop anyway. Started doing strides like 15 minutes before race time and they did not feel good. It was around this time that I noticed it was almost all RunningWild Elite or Iowa Runablaze guys, then me and two other guys. 10 of us total and I knew there was a 99% chance I was going to get dead last. There was also only 1 female athlete that signed up for elite heat. Easy $250 for her.
Race starts and I went straight to the back, scared I was going to get drug out too fast. I vividly remember on the second turn, 3 blocks into the race, feeling like absolute garbage. I didn't really panic because I felt that way last summer during the mile time trial with Jonah. If strava splits are to be believed, I went 72-73 for the opening half mile. Still pretty much felt like trash but the thought to drop out only crossed my mind for a split second. I was probably 3 to 4 seconds back from 9th place, but feeling even the faintest amount of contact kept me going. I didn't realize it at the time, but I really lost focus on the 3rd quarter and it was really detrimental to my overall time. There is a small hill from like .65 - .75 but even so, I really screwed up to somehow run an 84s quarter. At least I rebounded and finished really solid downhill. Closed in 69 to at least make my goal of sub 5. I did finish dead last by about 10 seconds, but at least I beat the winning time from the open heat so I don’t really care.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's plenty of room for improvement but I really am happy with the way I raced today. I think feeling like garbage for the entire race is probably a pretty good sign that I got a solid effort out of myself. I also think that warming up too soon and cheering for Leah contributed some to my legs feeling a bit flat by race time. Obviously that isn't an excuse for running an 84 second quarter mile, I just lost focus at an important time. That being said, I think on a track this was worth at least sub 4:55. On a day where I am feeling better, I still think I can run 4:50. But it's all talk until I do it... Tonight I am just happy to once again be a sub 5:00 minute miler.