GBTC Invitational

In December, I ran 5:16 at the Alden Invitational, so clearly my goal in the mile was to run faster than that. I went out in 36, not far behind Anna King, who was leading. Alan said to take the next lap to reel her in, which I did, running the second lap in 37. I actually had no idea what my times were -- I figured I had gone out in a reasonable 77 or 78. Well, on the third lap Anna got away from me a little, and I couldn't get her back. So I slowed down a little, and went through the 800 in 2:35.

Well, then my legs decided that they would rather not run quite so fast. I started to struggle, and people caught up to me and passed me. It was not pretty. I kicked in the last lap hard and was ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED to see the clock going 5:18, 5:19, 5:20. How could I run as hard as I possibly could, and not run a PR? Not a fun realization. I ran 5:20.61, which is my second-fastest mile, but not what I wanted. Bah humbug. (results).


Here are people passing me after I slowed down in the mile.

I doubled back in the 800. Sometimes, when I run an unsatisfying mile, I come back and run a great 800 and save the day (as last year, when I tanked a 5:35 for the mile and then ran a 2:33 PR in the 800). The plan for the 800 was to go out just like the mile and then kick the last two laps. I did this, but was unable to run the last two laps fast enough, and ran 73 + 78 for the 400s. Again, I was shocked to see the clock say 2:30 as I finished. I ran 2:31.09, again my second-fastest 800 (by 0.6 seconds). (results)

And my legs hurt a lot for the next few days. This race was on Sunday, and my next race was on Friday, and my leg fatigue was such that I didn't do any track workouts in between. Such is the effect of racing hard, twice in the same day.