Well, it was wet and raw at the Tufts invitational…but the wind wasn’t bad J
I had decided to race at Tufts when I found nothing that really jumped out at me as an interesting race. I was hoping to run a season best, aiming for under 16:40.
I showed up extra early to make sure I had plenty of time to warm-up. I’m glad I did, as the meet was progressing at a rapid pace. I guess they had fewer entrants than expected and the weather was a big motivator to keep things moving along.
I headed out and did loops around the track and the throwing areas. That way I’d be able to keep an eye on the action and make sure they didn’t get even further ahead of schedule. I was race ready when the women hit the track for their heat of the 5,000. I was not taking any chances that they’d combine heats (like they did the last time I ran a 5,000 on the track 2 years ago). They did not so I headed out for another 1.5 miles along with strides. I felt okay as we gathered for the start.
There were less than 20 guys on the line (and apparently a few were just “pacing” others and had no plans to finish). At the end of the first turn I was squarely in last place. I settled in with four guys from Tufts and we hit the 400 a little quicker than I wanted. The pace then got closer to what I was looking for and I worked with the Tufts group.
They were running evenly, each of the four would take a turn at the lead of our group and the tempo would increase for 100-200m then slow as the next guy would move up. I found myself anywhere from the front of the group to hanging off the back depending on who was pushing the pace. It also didn’t help the pace that all of us would swing wide (lane 3) on the front straight to avoid the VERY deep puddle that took up the first 2 lanes.
I felt pretty decent through the mile but after that I struggled. I ran fairly even splits, they were just a couple of seconds slower than I wanted. The last 400 was my slowest despite trying to kick. I guess I just didn’t have another gear. Some days you feel great, some days you feel awful and some days you feel like I felt at this race (somewhere in the middle). Oh well, it is just another stepping-stone toward my goals for the spring.
Splits:
77.3
80.3
80.1
80.0
80.0
81.0
81.7
80.1
80.8
81.5
81.9
82.4
40.0
16:47.1
Kilometer splits
3:17.6
3:20.1
3:22.7
3:22.4
3:24.3
Steeple jump or just lane 1? |
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Name School Time
=========================================
1 Gisore, Antoine New England College 15:34.20
2 Andrews, Tyler Tufts 16:01.20
3 Ladd, Aaron B A A 16:23.20
4 Haskell, Andrew Tufts 16:29.60
5 Ndisabiye, Steven New England College 16:34.70
6 Antokal, Erik Tufts 16:37.60
7 Lawrence, John Merrimack 16:46.30
8 Dunham, Dave CMS 40+ 16:47.10
9 Hutchinson, Samuel Tufts 16:54.50
10 Lewis, Peter Tufts 17:03.70
2 comments:
Wow - impressive Dave. The way you had this written I thought you were going to say 17 something. Tough day on several fronts but you still posted a solid result.
agreed...although there was also a Dave Dunham that would have an off day and still ONLY just break 25 minutes for 5 miles....or just barely squeeze under 15 for 5k while blowing up over the last mile (and having it be his 3rd race of the weekend)...or just barely breaking 2:30 for the marathon whilst stopping to change into trainers at half way and 'tempo-ing' back to the finish... sometimes I hear those stories and just want to stop running...other times it motivates me to try harder! DD has that affect on people. :)
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