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| Water Jump at Occidental College |
The USATF High Performance Meet sure lived up to its name! It was like
a mini Olympic Trials and was a great event. It makes me wish we had more meets
like this in the U.S. for post-collegiate athletes. We have the resources (i.e.
collegiate tracks) but just need someone wanting to host, then the athletes to
get on board and compete at these events. The college track meets like Mt. SAC,
Payton Jordan, etc. are great but they are early in the season and after April
there are virtually no meets for an elite athlete to compete at with college
teams competing at their Conference, Regional and National track meets. But I
am getting off topic.
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| This is how I get ready. Braided hair with "lightning bolt" and some colorful nails! |
Friday night I
started the night off with the women’s 3k steeple. I was feeling really good
and wanted to go for it. The gun went off and for once I got a great start. I
was aggressive off the line and found myself in the front. I was actually a
little surprised that more women were not running a faster pace because I
figured we all had the same goal in mind. Go under 9:55 and secure a spot in
the Olympic Trials.
I was able to see
all my hurdles and was feeling very smooth over them. My mind was focused and I
was confident. I never let negative thoughts creep into my mind and the entire
race I told myself I was going to get my goal.
The Oxy track was a bit different than what I am used to in a steeple. It has very large curves so the starting line is back farther near the start of the back stretch. This makes for splits I am not used to hearing each lap. I had a time goal in mind and on paper wrote down splits to get me to 9:51. I figured this would be a time that should win this heat. The winner of this heat ended up running 9:52. Oh how I wish it was as easy as simply writing down splits to be able to execute them in a race. Since the splits on this track would be different than what I am used to seeing I wanted to run off feel. I was feeling really good. Five laps in, I was feeling really good. Then I had a very bad water jump. I pretty much stopped in the water and after that my legs loaded up a bit and I struggled on the rest of my jumps. However in my mind I was still focused and confident I could come back.
Then I crossed the
line and saw 10:03…what? How did that happen? It still was a great effort and
race, my second fastest steeple of my life, but I was bummed. I was so focused,
so prepared and felt so good. How could I have let the perfect opportunity pass
me by without getting my mark? I know I have said this time and time again but
I struggle with my water jumps and I don’t know why. Well I know what I am
doing wrong, I know what I need to do differently but every time I re-watch my
races I am left scratching my head wondering why something so simple can cause
me such grief? I was running under 9:55 pace on the laps but was losing 2+
seconds per lap on inefficient water jumps and energy expenditure trying to get
back up to speed.
And now I am left
leaving it down to one more track meet at the Portland Track Festival for me to
chase my mark. I am hoping with it being an Olympic year there will be a
competitive women’s steeple field but I am also expecting it to not be this
way. I am prepared to run alone and try to hit my splits. I know this is not
the easiest thing to do but I have left myself with no choice. I guess I just
like to make it hard on myself, to keep myself focused and working hard. That’s
just what I keep telling myself.
Right now I am
ranked 26th in the U.S.A. for the women’s 3k steeple. This includes
marks from last year and there are a few women I am not sure if they will even
race. But I can only assume that they will since it is the Olympic Trials after
all. 25th place is .04 seconds ahead of me and 24th about
a second. It would be an understatement to say it is a tight field. In the 3k
steeple they only take 24 women. They run two heats of 12 in the prelim and one
heat of 14 in the final. How I wish they would run two heats of 14 in the
prelim and one heat of 12 in the final…but I knew how the game worked before
the season even started and so it is up to me to secure my spot.
I have three weeks
to prepare. Tomorrow I am running a road race in Seattle. It seemed like a
great idea a week ago but after running an easy 4 miles on the beach this
morning my body is feeling trashed from Friday’s race. After racing Friday
night, sleeping five hours, then traveling all day Saturday, my goal is just to
run a good effort on Sunday and not put myself in the hole. But who knows,
maybe I will surprise myself tomorrow. It wouldn’t be the first time.
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| Saturday morning going for an easy run on the beach. |
QUICK UPDATE:
I wanted to sleep as much as possible so got up Sunday morning a little later than I normally would before a race. I ate an Oatmeal Harvest Energy PowerBar and drank some Gatorade Prime and was ready to go. My warm up was rough and running an 8 minute mile felt tough. I did an uptempo three minute run 30 minutes before the start and was barely able to go 5:45-50 pace. At first I questioned why I was doing the race then the whole reason for the race sunk in. The race is a fundraiser for JDRF, "the largest nongovernmental funder of research to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes." I was a little sleep deprived but a very healthy and strong individual. With thankfulness in mind I was ready to race and have some fun.
When the gun went off my body knew what to do. I felt good. The race went smoothly but I started getting a bit tired with two miles to go. Mile 3 to mile 4 the lead woman put a bit of a gap on me but by 3/4 of a mile to go I managed to rally back and was back with her. However, she put on another move and I could not match it. I glanced back (I know, I know, I should never look back) and saw that I had second place secured. I ran in as fast I could and was very pleased to have finished 2nd overall in 27:08 for 8k, seven seconds faster than last year! To celebrate I took Levi and my brother Josh out shopping with my new Nordstrom gift card I got for placing in the top five. It was definitely a busy but wonderful weekend!
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| Post Beat the Bridge 8k Race. Josh looks tired :) |
Video courtesy of RunnerSpace:
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