Notes
One mile run. First (and possibly only) mile of the indoor season. Really excited for it, looking to qualify for DIII's (4:50 or better). In a heat with Pony, Jesse, Johnny, Pat, Mikey D, and some kids from Scituate, Quincy, and Hingham.
Didn't want to go out to hard the first quarter, so tucked in behind Jesse, who was off of Pony. We figured that Pony was going to run a very fast time, and so planned to keep a ways off of him. The first lap was fine, 34 seconds. However, we must have slowed down considerably, because at the next lap we were at 75 seconds, just as two kids (one from Hingham and one from Quincy) passed me. I immediately reacted, passing both them and Jesse. I realized that in order to run a good time I needed to now start consciously ramping up my effort. I attempted to do so over the next two laps, but came through the half mile in only 2:30. I really started panicking at that point, and tried to increase pace further. Over the last 200 I took it up another notch again, sprinting home to the finish. When I finished, I figured that I had run a bad time because of how slow the beginning had been and how relatively easy the race had felt. I ended up having run 4:55.9, an Indoor PR- not terrible. I was still somewhat disappointed, but it was a decent time.
There are certainly a few things I can take out of this race. One is to not assume that the top guys are going to run a great time- Pony only ran 4:49, around where I would have liked to have been. Another things is that I learned that I need to make sure that I don't settle in way too much in the second lap- I think I could have ran faster had I opened up the first quarter a little quicker, and been at 2:25 or so through the 800. On the flip side, it is definitely good to run a 5 second negative split, which shows that I can call up an extended kick when I have to and that even after a slow start, the race isn't doomed if I respond and work hard the second half.