RACE REPORT: IT SUCKED

So on Monday we had another track meet. And it sucked. And now my legs are super tired, my coach is disappointed, and I have to pull out something amazing in order to be good again. Let's just say the meet didn't go well.

We only had to ride a school bus for about 45 minutes to get to the town in the middle of nowhere where our meet was. Of course the bus was very crowded so I couldn't move. We had to make sure the coaches each got their own seat though because they can't sit together. I think I know why my coach drove by himself. It really was a town in the middle of nowhere though, it took us about two minutes to get to the edge of it, where the school and track was. The track had cornfields around it, it felt like stereotypical Iowa. Most of the seven teams there had a similar vibe going on, in that they were small with not very fast runners. This meant I had a chance and my main competitors would be from the next biggest team there, who were one of the top five teams in their class.

My first race of the day was the 4x800. I was running it with JS and AK which we were pretty excited about. We don't usually get to run a relay together and we wanted to prove something to the mid distance runners. That is one of the reasons we warmed up by ourselfs and did not do the team warmup. Instead we ran three laps before stretching. It was getting a little warm out, in the upper 60's, which was making me really thirsty. We haven't had much warm weather so I haven't gotten used to racing in it.


JS agreed to go first because I didn't want to, so I was going last. Running first makes it feel harder and I like when the gaps are already established. It makes me want to race. She ran about a 2:36, but she wasn't feeling very good. AK in her first 800 this season, ran a 2:40 and the third runner did a 2:45. When the baton was handed off to me, we were in second, about 60m behind first place but only 10m ahead of third place.

The first lap didn't feel too bad, judging by 800 standards. My legs felt a little tired but when I began lapping the JV people, including my own teammate, it made me feel a little better. On the second lap, I was hearing footsteps behind me for awhile, and I couldn't figure out if that was third place or somebody I had lapped. I was really pushing it because I didn't want to be the one losing second but with 100m to go, my legs and arms were very tired. It didn't matter though, because it was someone I had lapped that I was hearing. We took second, way ahead of third place but still about 60m behind first place. My coach seemed to be a little disappointed with it but I felt like I had run pretty good. My time- 2:34 again. I seem to be good at tying my PRs.

I was really tired after my 800 and the meet was moving really fast, so I wasn't able to get as much rest. I didn't know when we would have to warm up for the 1500m, so I wasn't sure how much to eat or drink. My throat felt really dry though and I was really thirsty. I drank more water than I probably should have but I couldn't really help it. It tasted really good.

About an hour after the 4x800, it was time to warm up for the 1500m. My legs were already tired, although I didn't run over the weekend for that reason. I knew I had to get a good time though, to prove to my coach that I could improve with my 1500. I had a hard time convincing myself that I could do that though, because I was so tired. The four laps we did as a warmup for very slow because of this. I couldn't wait to get the race over with.

The winning time for the 3000m was 11:54, slow and a second slower than my Friday time. I would like to think that I would've factored into the race but judging by my 1500, that might not have been the case. The race did make me think that I could do very well in the 1500m and when I checked in, it looked like I had the fastest time out of the runners. I didn't really care about the places though, I cared about the times and how fast I could go.

There was no lane assignments so AK and I took the middle lanes. We weren't on the line for long and once we took off, I settled in at third place. The other two girls seemed to really take off and I didn't think they could keep it up for the whole race. I was going to kind of pace myself and not depend on any other runners but myself. This meant I was not running next to AK, but I usually don't in the 1500m.

The first lap felt pretty good but a struggled a bit with the second. I tried to tell myself that after this lap, I'd only have an 800 but it didn't do very much good. I could feel myself slowing down a little but I tried to resist it and catch the girls in front of me. With two laps to go, the first two girls were still ahead of me and I was getting tired. I was just trying to hold onto third place because I didn't know where the other girls were behind me.

With a lap to go, I was at 4:06, six seconds slower that Friday's slow time. I passed the girl ahead of me with 300m to go. I knew for sure that I was going slow but that I had to sort of salvage the race with the last lap. Except, with no one near me, I didn't try as hard as I should've. I didn't do what I was supposed to.

I finished in 5:28 or 5:29, my second slowest 1500 and my slowest outdoor 1500m of the season. Second place was mine but with the first girl coming in at 5:14, I knew that I could've won the race. I should have been up there but I wasn't. And it was my own fault. I lost that race. It was me.

My coach didn't say much after my race, just asked me how it felt. I told him that it was not good because I was so tired. AK finished about five seconds behind me in third place and she felt good, so I tried to refrain from talking about how I had ruined my race. What did make the day better though- free popcorn.

1500
2nd- 5:29