Race Recap - D3 NE Championships 3k

On Friday, the Middlebury women's track team headed back down to Boston again, this time to MIT, for the Division 3 New England Championships. MIT kind of has a reputation for being a "slow" track, but Chiara del Piccolo from Williams proved that wrong in the 5k (17:22). My teammate Margo followed that up by winning the mile in 4:54, a 7 second PR, facility and meet record, and NCAA Automatic Qualifier. But going into this meet, I had a lot of trouble not thinking of it as a "slow track" because the last race I ran there was a virtually solo 5k in 19:26. It's kind of crazy looking back and seeing how far I've come. I now run 5k tempo runs by myself that are faster than that and way easier.

But still, going into this I didn't have the best attitude and something didn't feel right. I've felt really fatigued all week, as if I still hadn't recovered from my 2 races last weekend. Or, it could be that I'm having trouble adjusting to actually running most of my miles -- with the hamstring tendon issue I've been having and the flu I got from Vaulterboy, I was doing mostly cross-training and just started switching back to actual running this week.

Back to the race... My coach and I had the plan of just sitting back and letting everyone pull me and then to start working my way up starting at the mile mark. Under no circumstances was I supposed to be leading the race at any point before that. Well, there was no danger of me ever leading that race. I started out conservatively, as my coach told me to, at the very back of the pack. There was a lot of traffic and I just wanted to stay away from all the elbows and spikes. I remember thinking "We're going so SLOW" and the pack was starting to get away from me, so I started moving up a lap earlier than planned. Then, at the mile mark, Amy Wilfert from Tufts made a crazy big move to try to break everyone up and, for the most part, everyone went with her. I assumed some of them would get tired and come back to me, so I just didn't worry about it and held my pace. By the time I realized that no one was coming back, it was too late. I didn't have enough room to get back up with the group. I finished 8th in 10:24.9, my 2nd fastest 3k ever and good for 1 point for the team.

My coach seemed happy with it and my teammates all said I looked great... I don't usually voice my disappointment in a race, but I really am disappointed with myself. I never put myself in a position to actually be a part of that race. I was never in it. But disappointment doesn't do you any good unless you learn something from it. On my long cool-down along the Charles River (it was beautiful!) I realized that I learned 2 things yesterday:

1. It can be very counterproductive to think of any track as a "slow track." If you do that, you've already resigned yourself to running slow before you even start. Maybe I've historically run rather slow at the MIT track, but yesterday was an opportunity to run fast and I missed that opportunity because I had a bad attitude about the facility. Lesson learned.
2. It's okay to make plans for races, but you also need to be flexible. There are other people in a race and their plans aren't always going to line up with yours. If you want to actually be a part of the race, you need to be willing to change your plans in response to what's going on around you.

Up Next: NEICAAA (Open New England) Championships at BU - 3k on 2/26

100 Days

Every year at Middlebury, the school throws parties for the seniors to celebrate milestones to graduation: 200 days and 100 days. The 100 Days party should have been this past weekend, but I think someone got confused. I know a lot of my classmates see the 100 Days as a celebration: they only have 100 days until they finally graduate (although I'm sure quite a few are more afraid of joining the "real world" than they will admit). Facing my thesis, for me it's more a reminder of how I only have 100 days to get a lot of work done. After 4 years of work, I have only 100 more days to finish the capstone work of my college education. When you think about it, that's really not that much time.

Today, I'm at another 100 Day milestone: 100 days until the steeplechase at NCAAs. And, yes, just like my thesis I still have a lot of work to do in these next 100 days. If the race was tomorrow, I wouldn't be ready. But I've been preparing for this for a few years now. I have 3 months of training left to sharpen up. That could scare me. I could worry about all the things I should have done but didn't. But it actually excites me. I know I've worked hard and done what I can. After looking forward to that meet as a goal far off in the future, it's now only 100 days away. In 100 days, I get the chance to go out there and chase my dreams and have fun doing it.

My focus now is to, first of all, stay healthy. I truly think I am capable of running the time I'll need to get myself there and I don't want some preventable injury to keep me from that starting line. While very upsetting, my run-ins with injury during cross country season taught me a lot about the importance of the little things and I've committed myself to taking care of those little things I need to do to stay healthy and be the best runner I can be -- sleep, nutrition, stretching, preventative icing, etc. These next 100 days are going to go really quickly, and I'm excited to see all my hard work pay off. But even if I do get sidelined by an injury like I did during cross country or if my time falls short, national championships aren't everything. Sure, I'd love to make that goal a reality, but that's not why I do this. I run steeplechase because I love it. 100 days from now isn't the end of my running career -- it's just the end of one chapter and the beginning of a whole new one.

I'm not throwing a party to celebrate this 100 day milestone. Win or lose, the real party will be 100 days from now. And you're all invited.

Live Webcast this weekend

The Division 3 New England Championships at MIT will be broadcast live online this Saturday. Click Here and then click on "Live Webcast"

The schedule of events can be found if you Click Here

I'll be running the seeded section of the 3,000M at 3:15 Eastern Time.

Race Recap - BU 5k and Tufts Mile

This weekend was a very busy one for our track team. On Friday the women (plus the men's distance medley relay) were at Boston University's Valentine Invitational. Then on Saturday, the women's distance medley and the rest of the men's running events competed there, while all of our field event athletes and a handful of runners went to Tufts University. My coach and I decided that I would run the 5k on Friday night at BU in hopes of grabbing a PR and perhaps even a national-qualifying time, and then double back in the mile at Tufts on Saturday, trying for another PR.

I've been trying to think of how to characterize my 5k race since it happened. There are a lot of things I could say, excuses I could make, but the truth is that I just didn't run smart like I did last week. I got too caught up in the excitement of racing, went out too hard, and then paid for it. I ran a 5k PR of 18:06 - 11 seconds faster than my cross country PR, 28 seconds faster than my outdoor track PR, and 1:20 faster than my indoor track PR. So, I'm happy with the time (because I really can't complain about a PR) but I'm not satisfied with it because I know I can do better. Instead of spending more words describing my race, I'll just let the race video speak for itself.

Watch more video of 2011 BU Valentine Invitational on flotrack.org

As for the mile... When we got to Tufts, I looked at the entry list. My coach had entered me at 5:12. There were 7 other girls on the list; the next fastest girl was entered at 5:25. I didn't have a great feeling about running a time trial on tired legs, but I thought I should be able to hold pace by myself. Well, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I've run my goal pace in practice before, but from the gun I had a really hard time remembering what it was supposed to feel like. My legs felt really flat and I never really got set  into the pace I wanted. I won by 9 seconds in 5:20, which is only a second away from my PR. I could be disappointed with missing my PR, but after thinking about it I realize I should be really happy with coming so close in a solo effort just a little more than 12 hours after a 5k PR.

For a run-down of the awesome performances of my teammates (multiple NCAA qualifiers and school records broken) at BU, check out the press release by clicking HERE.

Up next : the Division 3 New England Championships at MIT on Saturday, 2/19. I'll be running the 3k and possibly also a leg of the Distance Medley Relay.

Track Mentality

I was thinking this morning about one of the crazy differences between cross country and track (besides the obvious difference in running surface). In cross country, to advance to nationals you have to finish in a certain place - either as part of a team or as an individual - at the regional meet. You can win every single race all season in blazing fast times; but if something happens on that one day, you get food poisoning or your bus breaks down on the way to the meet, you're stuck watching nationals either from the sidelines or on the online streaming video. To get to NCAAs in cross country, you really have to bring your A-game on the day of regionals, and there's a very "us vs. them" mentality when it comes to other teams since finishing places (and team score) determine who moves on.

Track is a different beast. Obviously at our conference meet, scoring points for the team in hopes of winning a conference title is a major focus. But in terms of getting to run at the National meet, time is more important than finishing place. If I win the conference and DIII New England Championships but don't hit the qualifying standard, I won't be toeing the line at Nationals. Because they limit the field size at NCAAs, you obviously want to get yourself as high up the performance list as you can. But I feel like, for me, I have a much more friendly and cooperative relationship with my competition during track season. It's not so much a feeling of "I need to beat you" as much as it's "I need to hit this particular time, and you're trying to hit it too. If we work hard and push each other, we'll both have a better chance of achieving our goal."

I realize this can sound like a lack of competitive spirit, but I don't think that's what it is. I'm a fiercely competitive person. I want to win. Off the track, the girls I race against are actually some of my closest friends. During most of a race, I work well with teammates and competitors alike because I know we're all giving a piece of ourselves in the pursuit of something greater. I'm not saying that I would run slower than I felt I was capable of just to keep someone company, because that's definitely not the case. What I mean is that even something as simple as saying "Keep it up!" to the girl who went out too hard can really help her keep moving and even turn her race around. I know. I've been there many times. I'm willing to help another runner out when she's struggling because I know in the next race I may be the one just hanging on and I would hope someone would give me the same encouragement. But, in about the last 400 meters of a race, I have no friends. I found a youtube video yesterday with the caption: "Don't F with a steeplechaser when death is on the line." For lack of a better explanation of my mindset in the last 400, I would say that sums it up pretty well. :-P

Why did I bring all this up? I looked at the entry list for my 5k tomorrow night and saw that my friend Rav (a recent Wesleyan University grad who now runs for the BAA) will most likely be in my heat. I met her during the conference XC race my freshman year. We've raced together a few times, but it's been a while and I'm really excited to work with her again tomorrow. Usually, she comes out on top, but I'm not going to just hand her the victory yet. She's gonna have to work pretty hard for it because I'm ready to run FAST! :-)

Race Recap - Dartmouth Invitational 3k

I was hoping to have this race recap up a little sooner, but things have been busy with the start of my final college semester. As least I'm getting it out before my next race! :-)

Runnergirl and Vaulterboy

The past week and a half has been pretty crazy. Over our February break, I visited my friend Samuel Rice (hereafter referred to as "Vaulterboy"), a pole vaulter at the University of Southern Indiana. Why'd I choose to go to Evansville for my vacation? I needed to get out of the snow and I consider temperatures in the mid-30s akin to a heat wave right now.

I'm really glad last week was supposed to be a recovery week, because my training wasn't as good as it could've been. Vaulterboy and I both had a flu, but he was WAY sicker than I was, so I spent a decent chunk of time taking care of him and making sure he wasn't dead. I know my illness could have been way worse, but it did still cut into my trainning, forcing me to drop mileage volume pretty significantly and cut my tempo run short.

Since I was still getting over my sickness when I got back to school, I wasn't expecting much from my 3k race at Dartmouth. And as the 10th seed in the fast heat, I figured I would be toward the back of the pack. With 2 teammates by my side (Colette and Claire), I decided it was the perfect opportunity to practice a patience my racing has never exhibited and it was also nice to have a chance to work together with my girls. This was the first time I've ever gone into a race just planning to run and forget about time, so I couldn't tell you any of my splits. I glanced at the official clock and my watch a few times during the race, but it was more out of force of habit than to actually use the information to direct my racing.

Track: A Contact Sport

From the gun, I settled in toward the back at what felt like a pretty comfortable pace and made myself relax and not worry about letting other people control the pace. That's really hard for a control freak like me! I did feel myself getting a little antsy in that first 1k, but I just pushed back those urges and focused on sticking to Colette like glue. The one problem in the beginning of the race was that people got a little violent trying to jockey around for position and I got kicked and tripped a few times. (After the race, 2 trickles of blood on my right shin showed that I had been spiked, but I don't have any recollection of it happening). Hard core, right? Haha. Okay, so it wasn't quite as intense as when Sarah got spiked at NCAAs my freshman year and Nicole had to take her to the hospital for stitches!

Colette and I worked really well to keep each other focused during the first mile or so of the race, while Claire had moved up to a small chase pack (the leader was looooong gone) about 15-20 meters ahead of us. When we hit the 2k mark, I realized I was feeling really good - better than I've ever felt at that point in a race. So I set my sights on the pack ahead of us and worked to reel them in and then pass them over the next 400 meters. With 600 meters to go, I felt incredible and decided to start picking up the pace a bit to go after the Dartmouth runner 15 meters ahead of me. When I reached her, I sat on her shoulder until we only had 1 lap left (200 meters). Out of nowhere came the kick I've been missing for a while. I don't actually know what my split for the last lap was, but I put 3 seconds on the runner from Dartmouth and finished 2nd.

As I crossed the line, I stopped my watch, as usual. When I looked down at my time, my jaw dropped. In the first race where time was the last thing on my mind, I dropped 17 seconds from my PR to run 10:21.19 and qualify for the Open New England Championships. Just weeks ago, my mile PR was 5:29, and I just ran 5:33 pace for almost 2 miles. I realize these times are nowhere near national-class, but it's a huge improvement for me and I'm making steady progress toward my goals. I don't even have the words for how excited I am for the rest of my season. But more than anything, I'm proud of how I actually ran a smart race for once. Of course, I still need more practice at it, but I'm celebrating every small improvement in my times and racing mentality/tactics.

**Also have to put in a little CONGRATULATIONS to Vaulterboy for his new vault PR in his first ever collegiate meet: 4.35 meters (14'3.25") -- he tied USI's school record and broke the freshman school record. Outstanding collegiate debut, Sam! :-) 

Up next: I'm running the 5k this Friday (2/11) evening at Boston University, and then turning around for the Mile on Saturday (2/12) at Tufts University. Should be an exciting weekend! :-D

Ain't nothin' gonna to break my stride
Nobody's gonna slow me down, oh-no
I got to keep on movin'
Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride
I'm running and I won't touch ground
Oh-no, I got to keep on movin' 

From "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder