Last weekend I ran my first 3,000 meter race in three years. The end result surprised me (to say the least) and also was a warm welcome to the 2012 racing season. 9:41.44 was my official time, good enough for 5th place. In 2009, at the same meet, I finished 6th with a 10:04 3k. That's right, the competition has gotten tougher, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
The race started slow, 79 for the first 400m, and people were stumbling all over the place. I was a little annoyed prior to the race because they had me starting behind the first line of girls instead of doing a staggered start, but I came to find out it put me in near perfect position, right in the inside lane. I stayed there until 200 meters to go : )
The starting line! Little ol' Emily is tucked away in the second row of lane 1.
The lead group started picking up the pace and soon I found myself running a 75 here, 76 there. I didn't realize the change in pace at the time, I just wanted to stay in contact with the chase pack. The three other girls I was running with changed leads periodically, but my plan was to run as fast as I could for as long as I could without using a lot of extra effort and losing my inside position. I fell off from my group for a couple of laps in the middle, but I was able to catch back up. The race went by so quickly and it's one of the reasons why I LOVE indoor and the 3,000!! I felt like a little mini race car hugging the turns and stepping on the gas when it was time to go. 2,800m into the race, I used the "Loeffler Kick" and ended up going from 8th to 5th within the last 200 meters with a saucy 35 second last lap. 5th through 8th place all finished within one and half seconds of each other. I was roughly five seconds back from 4th, and the winner, Becky Wade, came in at 9:29! Splits were also pretty saucy, 4:49 for the first 1500 meters and 4:51 for the last, or in terms of kilometers, 3:13.94, 3:14.36, 3:13.14.
A lap or two into the race
I had no idea what my time was until I looked down at my watch post race. I couldn't believe it. I had gotten a couple of splits throughout the race, but I stink at math (it's one of the reasons I married Jer, he's a walking calculator); I just knew that anything below 40 was good. The goal going into the race was simply to run close to my outdoor 3,000m personal best, 9:53. We thought on a great day high 9:40's, especially because the only speed work I got in prior to racing was an Aussie quarters workout and some hill sprints, but both were only a week or so before the race. Needless to say when I saw a 9:41 on my watch I couldn't stop smiling. It was a great race, with a great finish for me.
Jer got the race on tape, which you can view HERE.
I'm in the lime green sports bra and pig tails. It's a little blurry, mainly from technical difficulties, but also from an excited camera man.
Funny thing is I came so close to not even starting the race because of a tight IT band from some hill sprints a couple days prior. It was super tight on the morning shakeout and even tighter on the warm-up. The last thing I wanted to do was have it tighten up so bad that it'd cause more harm than good during the race, but I did a couple strides and decided to jump in.
Anyways, lots of exciting things to come this season! I finally got up to 90 miles this week with some great quality workouts. First off was a 5 mile tempo Wednesday morning, at 6:12 pace, and then 4 x 200m's in the evening, hitting 31's and 32's for some speed, and finally a 3 x 3 mile workout today, working down from 6:30 to 6:00 pace this morning. Next race up is a local 5k that is being put on by a special friend, Ceci from www.iaapweb.com, and my next track race will be at my alma mater, Trinity University, at the end of February.
PS: Photo cred goes out to Lauren Smith's mom, for grabbing some of the awesomeness that went on that day!
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