Notes
This was a fun race for me. I wanted to really focus on competing and not try to worry about time in an event that is considered to be a little short for me. On top of that, the wind was gusting upwards of 30mph, which wasn't exactly going to make for a PR day.
The race went off and I immediately snugged my way into the back of our 12 man heat. I really didn't want to take the wind early in the race. Once we hit that first turn, I knew I had made the right decision as the whole pack slowed down noticeably. I could feel wind heavily beating my chest, despite being behind 10 guys. Once around the curve and mostly out of the brunt of the wind the pace seemed to pick back up. We came through 400m in about a 71 I believe. At this point there was already a gap forming in front of me and I knew I had to fill it. This was only a 1500m, so the margin for error was slim. I sat at the back of this new pack for another lap, and we came around through 800 in about 2:22. This is where the pace definitely picked up perceptibly. A new gap had formed, with two guys going out the front of the pack hard. Nobody went with them, and I chose not to as well. I believed that I could close hard, but that making the kind of move with 700m to go would probably be unwise for me. Another 100m later and they had significantly put room on our pack, and I was reassured of my decision to play it cool when they went. 600m left in the race and I was feeling it. My guts hurt, my lungs hurt, and my legs hurt. Truly a triple threated trifecta of pain. This was my race decision moment. I could either fall off the back of my pack, or stick it out. I remembered what I had said to William the previous day. "Make sure that you make it a race at the end if you want to finish strong". I grit my teeth and resigned to make it through the wind to the 400m to go mark. I could make this a race. I could. Coming out of the wind and down the straightaway towards the clock I hung tight at the back of our six man pack. The two guys who had gone hard with 700m to go were far and away, and I knew that a move to try to catch them would be pretty foolish and leave me tying up down the home stretch, however; I was determined to finish as high in this heat as possible. Down the back stretch just after 300m to go I made a move past a SVSU guy who was tying up. I snugged back in behind our new smaller pack for the last bend to save myself from the wind again and prepare for an all out throw-down on the home stretch. I came out of the turn wide into lane 3 so that I'd have a clear shot at the line, and shifted into my last gear. I pushed past one guy almost right away. I definitely caught him by surprise, I'm not sure if he actually even knew I was there in the first place. Next on the menu was another SVSU runner. He wasn't going to be passed without a fight but I was simply moving faster than he was. A dork from Red Cedar Running Club (the short one) fell victim to me with about 50m to go as well. I think that this is the 3rd time I've kicked him down in the final 100m of a race. I almost felt bad. Finally I came up on a runner from Detroit Mercy. This guy was hauling, and as soon as I clipped into his periphery he was able to find another gear and hold me off for the remaining 20m.
I was breathing hard and my stomach hurt really bad, but I was pretty proud of that race. I ran tough and was focused on the race situations around me. Most importantly though, I did not put myself out of the race when I wasn't sure I was gonna make it. In fact, I took the risk to put myself right in it and it payed off. I think that this will be huge confidence booster for me going into next week at GVSU where I'll be able to take a shot at the 1500m again with hopefully some better conditions. Rick Otte said that it was the best 1500m he's ever seen me run. He is an honest guy so I appreciated hearing that from him. Shortly after he said that I had to do my best to jog off the infield to puke my brains out :)