Notes
Colonial Relays 5k. It rained all day, pretty heavily but not enough to delay the running events in any major way. That is, until 7pm when the 1500 runners were lining up they called for everyone to get out of the stadium due to a tornado watch. Everyone went in the student union and they announced that the meet would be delayed until at least 8pm. About 30 minutes later they changed this until at least 10pm. This was really freaking a lot of people from the team out, so I just avoided them, layed down, listened to music and stayed focused the way I learned to in HS. Out of nowhere they then announced that the storms broke early and the meet would start again at 9:15pm. Go time.
We got back outside and conditions were absolutely perfect. Low 60s, clear, no wind. Watched Scott rip a nice 3:54 to start thing off again and then went to warm up. Found out they combined what would have been 3 5k sections into 2 to save time. This meant there would be 49 people in our heat, so it was going to be interesting. Lined up in the second row on the very inside position, got out well, and we were off.
Things were fast so just tried to stay relaxed, not surge, and not bump anyone. First 800m in about 2:20 and I was way way back, honestly almost in last I think. Bobby kept telling me I was fine though and I knew I was so just relaxed to the mile, which was 4:46 or 4:47 I believe. Much faster than I wanted but fine given how the race was playing out. Besides, I was feeling super relaxed. The whole second mile I passed people, catching Doran and then Liam. Bobby says I was about 9:40 but I didn't see the clock. Anyways I felt way, way too good for having a mile left in the race. I was super paranoid about not blowing up though so I told myself to just stick with the pack I was in. They were going way too slow though so I ran three slow laps and then closed well, passing a few people on the last lap. Didn't really feel all that tired in the last mile, but I swore to be conservative today. Happy with how I ran overall though. Got back to Hopkins at 4am and passed tf out until 12.
Now that I have a good 5k under my belt, I'm not going to be as reluctant to start grinding the last mile / mile and a half. Today felt way too comfortable, even though conditions were great. I think I can race smarter as the season goes on. Probably gonna do the 1500 next week to get some shorter work in.