I showed up at 10am, started to get warmed up at around 11:15, walked around a bit, warmed up some more, did some light drills, then raced at 1:15ish. That wasn't ideal, but it was a good experience. It was my first BU Mini Meet, and just getting there and experiencing what is involved in showing up and getting a feel for how long it takes for 16 heats of the 400 to pass will be useful in the future...
I was fortunate that Jon Waldron was there and I spoke with him beforehand, and he was giving me splits throughout the race, which went something like this:
I was right at about 1:14 after the first 400, and feeling OK. But it didn't feel easy, which was strange, because I've run repeat 400's faster and much more comfortably. Nonetheless, I held pace and hit the 800 at about 2:28/29.
I forget my split at the 1200, but from 800 to 1300 - I was hurting. I wasn't falling apart, but there was a slight gap between myself and the next runner. At that point I should have embraced the pain and put in a little surge to catch him, but I just tried to keep the distance even. With about 300 to go I picked up the pace ever so slightly, and as I hit the bell lap the clock read ~4:27...my legs didn't feel like opening up, but I did my best to hit the gas. On the back straight there was one runner right ahead of me who I had the energy to pass, but not the real estate. I decided not to try and pass him on the outside lane, and instead, try to put more into the last final short straight. It wasn't enough (still pretty happy with that final 200 though).
5:00.43
Lessons:
1.) Either run less the week leading up to the race, or run easy (or BOTH!). The 60+ miles was a bad idea.
2.) Get in a better warm up.
3.) Make sure to do a handful of strides beforehand. I felt a little heavy-legged on the first quarter. That shouldn't be the case at all.
4.) Get familiar with, and embrace the 3rd quarter. Effort will need to increase to maintain the same pace. I know this, but it's much different talking about it vs feeling it.
5.) Do some more time trials. Why not?
I would definitely say run less or easier during the week of the race. I feel like your doing too much and that is why you aren't getting that light as a feather feel. But nice time though.
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