RACE REPORT: BREAKING TWELVE

On Friday April 3rd, I had the honor of running the 3000m at our first outdoor track meet. I've come to terms with the fact that the 3000 is very long compared to every other race, and that I run more than everybody else, in just one race. One good thing about the race though, is that it is the first. This means I get to relax the rest of the meet and eat delicious popcorn because I only have to run one race. It also means that nobody watches it, because it is the first race, and because it is the 3000, and who has the attention span to watch a couple of girls run around the track 7.5 times for over 10 minutes.

We had to be at the track at a ridiculously early time which wasn't a good idea because it was windy, although it was about 50 degrees. During the "team" warmup, my legs were feeling a little tired but okay. After stretching, I held a serious conversation with two of my favorite teammates about running. It was very interesting to hear their views about running but I'll save that for another post.

For our real warmup, I ran a mile with my friend and teammate AK. Besides the usual race nervousness dealing with not only a meet, but it being the first outdoors, and people I know actually being there, I was also nervous about running with her. She's always been faster than me until the beginning of track season this year, and I'm still a little intimidated by her. She looks like a fast runner and has done triathalons before, but she is very nice.

After the warmup and some stretching, we went for our traditional prerace bathroom break. I was waiting for AK outside the bathroom when one of my teammates runs up to me and tells me that they just announced the final call for the 3000. Obviously I freaked out, because it was 4:34 and our race was supposed to begin at 5:00. I still had to get my spikes, do some more stretching, make sure my parents had arrived, check in, find AK, and much more. My coach and teammates were considerably more calm than I or AK was, which helped a lot, because the race was now going to start at 4:45. We didn't officially ever check in for the race, because we couldn't find anybody, but apparently it didn't matter. We also had enough time to get ready because they started it a little later.

I received the right side of lane one for my lane assignment. The only worse position in any race but most of all this race, would be the left side of lane one. In the 3000, you are able to cut in immediately, as long as you don't cut anyone off. So of course, after the race started, I took two steps and was in last place because everyone else just slides in around the corner. That meant, since I was planning on running faster than most of the people ahead of me, that I had to go around a huge group of people in order to make it to the middle pack.

During the race, I ran with pretty much the same 4 or 5 girls. One of them happened to have the same name as me (which usually happens although my name is not that common, it seems to be a runner thing), so it seemed as though everybody was calling my name. Her coach was standing on the side and every time he'd yell at her, he'd say something but usually with her name. While he was saying things, it felt like he was talking to me, so I'd do what he was telling her. It is very motivating to have all these people cheering your name although you don't know half of them.

With about 3.5 laps left, my teammate AK suddenly showed up beside me. She had been running behind me the entire race, and one of my goals was to beat her. This wasn't anything personal, it was just a way of proving to myself that I had improved. She scared me a little though, because she had made of a gap and seemed to be running strong. After a lap though, the two girls I was running with sped up a little, and I stayed directly behind them. AK slipped back a little, because of the faster pace but she had made me more determined to pass these girls.

With two laps left, I knew that I was going to PR. My coach had been yelling at me that I was running a good race, and my watch was confirming that. I still had some running to do however, and I was determined to beat the girls I had been running with, especially the one I shared my name with. With one lap to go, but not a step before the line, I started finishing the race I had began over ten minutes earlier. One girl ahead of me took off even faster and the gap between us quickly grew large. Yet I also took off and I seemingly left the others behind. Sprinting the entire last lap is actually easier when you've done 6.5 laps beforehand.

With half a lap left, I passed a girl who looked like she was struggling. I didn't know this at the time, but I was lapping her. I know I shouldn't enjoy it but because I used to be one of those girls, I do.

I sprinted all out the last 100m although I knew nobody was near me. At the finish line I found out that I had gotten fourth(!) which was awesome. AK finished in fifth, a few seconds behind me. When the person filling out my results on a card was asking me to spell my name though, I couldn't believe it. I had just run a PR 3000m and they were asking me to spell out my name. So I did it the only way I could, two breaths, a letter, and repeat.

My coach congratulated us afterwards and told us our times. He was really proud of both of us, because we had improved so much and we had double scored. After cheering on my fellow distance runners in the 4x800 and having an interesting discussion about clouds, I began my cooldown. During this, an announcer came on the speaker and welcomed everyone to the meet. He talked about a police officer in our city who had been severely injured and named all the teams. Then the national anthem was sung and the meet officially began. Officially began after two races had been run. And I know they were boring and long distance races that nobody watches anyways. This was why my race started early, because the meet officially began at 5:00. I've gotten used to being overlooked, I run cross country which is as overlooked as you can get in high school sports, but this still really bothered me. It was like our races didn't count or something.

I did well at the meet and I enjoyed it although I had to leave early because I had my ACT test the next day. My coach seemed to be happy with us and sometimes that's really all that matters.

Time: 11:52 (PR and improvement by 28 seconds)
Place: 4th