Notes
This was definitely an interesting one. I had a good feeling that the race was gonna go out hard, and it did. I did my best to hang back and take it easy while maintaining solid contact on the pack. This did mean that I was out in 4:50 which is a little quick for me right now. Most of my teammates were out much, much faster, with big Klaasen being the next guy ahead of me being out in 4:47. Eventually the pack I was with realized that this pace was just too hot for them and came back to me. I then was running with three others: the moose caboose Jason Klaasen, an Aquinas duderino, and some jamoke from SHU. I went around them and they latched onto me, which I was not really too upset about because having people chasing you is better than having nobody at all. After another lap the Aquinas duderino took it from me which initially I was pretty happy about because I thought that it meant I was going to be able to settle in on his pace. Jason moved up next to me too, which again, I was pleased with. He looked like he wanted to take it back from the Aquinas guy but I grunted or did some sort of gesture to him trying to convey that I thought it would be wisest for us to sit on this guy if he was gonna do the work. The moose understood. Shortly after coming to this understanding the Aquinas guy started to slow down. It was very perceptible to me, and I tried to convey this to Jason but to no avail. I was not trapped in the awkward spot of being between the outside trail leg of the Aquinas guy and the loping stride of the moose. After probably only 50m of contemplation, I gave the moose a gentle nudge signifying my presence and intentions. I was a little nervous about jumping out in front of Jason because he has a long stride and I did not want either of us to get tangled up (especially after witnessing the calamity of Vreeke's spill at spring break). Fortunately I was able to slip pas him and back out around the Aquinas guy to re-assume the lead of my pack. At this point there was now at least a 50m gap between myself and the next runner up, which was Jacob. He looked like was hurting, I could see it in his form. In hindsight, this was where the race decision needed to be made. I had two options in retrospect: make a hard move and remove myself from my comfort zone to try to go up to Jacob in only a lap or two, or make an easier move to try to drag Jason along with me up to Jacob over the course of a few more laps. I chose the second option, and I now wish I hadn't. What happened was this: for the remainder of the race Jason and I would trade the lead trying to slowly creep up to Jacob. Every time Jason took the lead from me I could feel the pace slow down, and I needed to take it back from him after only a lap or so. Every time I took the lead, I am sure that Jason felt like it was slowing down, so he would take it back from me. We definitely got caught in this vicious cycle of trading the lead every 300-400m. This was neither efficient nor did it help us catch up to help Jacob any faster. Now with the finish creeping up on us (1200m to go) I took the lead one final tme from Klaasen. We had not made up enough ground, and I felt like we were beginning to die basically at the same rate as Jacob. It was time to try and salvage the race. I knew that at this point the race was not going to be particularly fast, and that our in-race strategy had been pretty piss-poor, however; I was still determined to make the most of the opportunity to run fast. I remember thinking about this as I took reigns back from Klaasen. It was a substantial move, and nearly as soon as I made it I heard someone shout from the in-field "No gaps Jason!". I worried for a second that I had just left Jason out in the cold, but then remembered that this was a now-or-never move and knew that we both had to decide to sink or swim. After 400m of this new pace I felt the moose resume to be my caboose and I was happy that he had the guts to come with me. As I was thinking this with 800m to go the aforementioned runner form SHU went around me at a pretty good clip. I had totally forgotten that he was in the race and honestly had thought that we had dropped him a while ago. This new pace injection was pretty unwelcomed by my body, which makes sense in the last 800m of a 5k. I dug pretty deep to attach myself to this new move but was unsuccessful. I believed at that moment in the race that I didn't have the legs to go quite with it. I did not let him run completely away from me however. I did get dragged along for another lap and with about 600m to go really felt myself hit lactic pretty good. My last lap was nothing too crazy, I definitely had a little bit of a kick but I did not blow the doors off of anyone. I did close the gap on the SHU guy, but did not beat him. I finished probably 5, behind him and maybe 20m or less behind Jacob.
I felt pretty shitty afterwards and I ran around 16:00 for the 5k. Exact times are unknown due to an error in the timing system. Looking back I wish that I had made better in race decisions. The first of these is that I wish I had gone out a little harder. This is definitely not a normal thing for me to write after a race but the logic behind it is this: if I had gone out a little faster I think that I could have run in the pack that Jacob was in. Even if being there doesn't stop him or I from falling back a bit, I would then be in the same situation, just 10 seconds farther up. In addition to this, I could have maybe worked with that pack better anyways, as it was bigger than the one I was in. Basically, I just believe that the opportunity cost of going out maybe 5 seconds faster in the first mile would have been better than hanging back like I chose to. I still want to chew on this one more, even though it looks like I have completely dissected it. This type of failure is making me hungry for another chance to race. Fortunately I will be getting another shot this weekend at Oakland. I cannot keep fucking up like this. I have trained way too hard over the course of five years to only run well at Hillsdale. I will be better at Oakland this weekend because my teammates need me to be, and more importantly, they deserve that I be.