RACE REPORT: A FANTASTIC 15

Sometimes there are days when you amaze even yourself. When you finish a race and you don't need anyone else to tell you how good you did, because you know that it was good. You realize that this was part of what you were training for, and that all the pain and harsh conditions was worth it. That these special moments in running are why you keep on going. It's why you run.

On Tuesday, April 7th, our team had a varsity only track meet about a half an hour away. The bus ride passed uneventfully as I tried to do some homework while speeding down the interstate. I wasn't running the 3000, although two of my teammates were (AK and JS). I was instead running the 4x800 and the 1500. It was going to be my first time doubling up on races this year and it wasn't going to be easy due to the temperature. When we arrived, it was in the 40's, so I actually wished I was running the 3000. I knew the sun would be down and it would get colder which meant the 1500 would be really cold.

After running the team warmup and stretching, I talked a bit with JS and AK, who were warming up for the 3000. I was apparently freaking them out because I kept asking them if they were ready. I wasn't sure when the girl's 4x800 would be ran, because it was a coed meet and we didn't have a schedule. Since two of the girls who would be on my 4x800 team were sprinters, I knew that they probably wouldn't do much of a warmup so I did a few laps on my own. It didn't feel that cold out by the time I was stretching so I decided to run my 800 without any underamour or running tights. Besides, the 3000 runners had 7.5 laps to run and they weren't wearing any extra clothing.

I watched the 3000m, cheering on my teammates, but secretly hoping that they wouldn't beat my last time of 11:52 by that much. I wanted them to do well but not too well which is kind of selfish. AK actually ended up beating JS, which is kind of an upset given how fast JS is, but it was only by a second. Final times for them were 12:02 and 12:03.

I both like and dislike the 4x800. I like how it's a warmup for the 1500 but I don't like how it's an all out sprint for two laps. I also don't like that I had to anchor the relay but that was better than being the first runner. The race went okay, when our third runner got the baton we were in last place and she moved us up one spot. Being in the back was okay with me because then it wouldn't be my fault we did so bad and I'd get the credit if we did good. Kind of selfish reasons again but I also had to deal with the fact that the sprinters didn't like that I was anchoring the relay without having run an 800 that year. I ended up passing another person and moving us up in the race. My coach congratulated me on "getting us back into the race" but I only ran 2:40, the same as the first leg and two seconds slower than the third leg. While running the relay though, I concentrate more on the actually racing part rather than what time I may get.

I had more than an hour wait before I began to even warmup for the 1500, so I did a quick cooldown and began to bundle up. With the sun going down, the temperature was going down fast and sitting down doesn't help either. As my teammates ate all kinds of junk food around me (because their races were done, so polite) I put on more and more layers. By the time I finally began my warmup for the 1500m, I was wearing, along with my uniform, running tights and two pairs of pants, an underamour shirt, a short sleeved shirt, two long sleeved shirts, a sweatshirt, my headband, and my gloves. All this and I was still really cold.

I was running the 1500 with my teammate RB, who I haven't ran a race with yet this year. We ran 4 laps around the track and my warmup made me a little worried. My legs were tired from my previous race, and they had cramped up and tightened with the cold. My feet felt frozen and they were a little numb, which made me wonder how I was going to run almost a mile as fast as I could. I also couldn't find my coach, and we were thinking he might have left and no longer was the "nice" coach. I really needed to know where he was at though and since we didn't know what time the race was at, our warmup was really a guess.

I had calmed myself down a little by the beginning of my race. Although the sky was now dark, the cold wasn't bothering me as much. The stadium lights were on which greatly excited me because one of my favorite things about the 1500, is running under the lights. I was just getting relaxed when we heard the final call for the 1500 (the first call we heard) and they were getting ready for the race while I was still tying the shoelaces of my spikes. I didn't even have time to do strides but I did do some stretching.

We were standing on the starting "waterfall" line in the outside lane (lane 7) when I noticed my coach standing outside the fence next to us. He hadn't left although he didn't talk to us before the race either. I wished RB good luck and then we were off.

During the first 100m, in which everyone sprints and cuts each other off (which I'm used to with xc), the one thing I really noticed was that my ears were cold. I was also wondering when we could cut in because I wasn't listening during the directions, but apparently it was immediately because everyone ran sideways into lane one to step in front of each other.

The first 300m is really a sprint and I didn't really settle in until I realized that we only had three laps left. It seemed so short compared to the 3000m. The second lap felt the longest however and with 2.5 laps to go I was talking to myself, telling myself that this was my race, the one I loved so much. That it was under the lights so it was going to be mine.

Running under the lights gives the race a special atmosphere. The crowd tends to disappear and their cheers are almost background noise. It really gets me in my zone and I can focus on just the ponytails of the girls in front of me. It doesn't make running effortless but sometimes my strength does seem to flow. The lights make it a completely different race.

Crossing the line with two laps to go, I realized that I only had an 800m to run, which I had done earlier. The previous lap was hard for me but I had dropped RB and was closing in on a girl ahead of me. When I passed my coach where we had started, he yelled something at me that stuck with me through the entire race. "You are so much faster than you were last year, so go get that girl". The part about the girl was irrelevant, my coach had just given me a huge compliment during a race. I knew that what he said was true, before he even said it, but hearing him say it made it real. Every time I wanted to slow down, I thought of what he had said and knew that I was going to rock this race. Because, afterall, I was so much faster than I was last year.

On the last lap, I tried picking up the pace because I still hadn't caught the girl ahead of me and I knew there was someone coming up behind me. When I passed my coach, he was on the track and had somehow climbed over the 10ft tall fence. He didn't offer me advice but just gave me encouragement. With 250m to go, a girl passed me. I tried hanging on behind her but she was really moving. With less than 100m, she passed the girl ahead of me who was suddenly very close. And then I knew that I had to get that girl, who had been running ahead of me the whole race. She had been passed once and I was going to make it twice. So I picked up my legs and pushed myself faster. There was no crowd and no other runners except myself and that girl racing to the line. With about 5m to the line, I passed her. At the same time I looked at the electronic timer next to the track. I saw the time of 5:25 and sprinted across the line in 7th place.

I had finished within 100m of the leaders and was in the top half of a varsity meet. But most of all, I had broken 5:30. My unwritten and unofficial goal this season was to break 5:30. I had somehow just done that, and I was estastic. My legs were tired and I needed to sit down, but I was good. I had always thought that being under 5:30 would make you good, and now I had done that. With my final time of 5:26, I had PRed by 10 seconds but accomplished so much more than that.

I ran my two lap cooldown alone, with a smile on my face. I was proving to myself, my team, and my coach that I can run. It was incredibly.....awesome.

My coach was waiting for me as I walked to the bleachers. After looking like he was ready to hug me, he told me that I had done a fantastic job and that I had improved so much. He also said that I had done a great job training over the winter and now it was paying off. He gave me a couple of high fives and couldn't keep the grin off his face. But this time, I didn't need him to like the results, although it did make the experience even better. That race was amazing though, and it was why I ran.

4x800 split- 2:40 (should've been faster)

1500- 5:26 (it felt like a sprint the entire race which somewhat explains the very wonderful result)