Just one week after my season opener in the miler, I came back to race the 5k. This happened to be my first ever track 5k and I didn’t know what to expect going into it. I had a rough idea of the shape I was in, but there were still many question marks including: how would I hold up for 25 laps on the 200m track?
I figured the range of what I was in shape to run would be between 15:10 and 15:30. I woke up feeling okay in the morning, which is exactly how I like to feel before a race; I find that my best races come from feeling average in the morning. My race wasn’t until around 7:30pm, so I spent the entire Saturday being very unproductive and trying to relax before my race. I tend to feel better and more ready to race later in the day; however, this can also be agonizing to wait so long to race. Making sure that you’re staying relaxed all day can actually be quite exhausting, funny enough.
I was entered in the same heat as three of my teammates, Junior Logan Broedner, Sophomore Diego de la Torre, and fellow Freshman and my roommate Rylan Pettit. Logan and Diego had both run indoor 5k’s before, while Rylan and I were both competing in our first ever races at the event in track.
Like many of my races, the warmup went by super fast and the next thing I knew I was on the starting line. The gun went off and all the nerves were gone. Traditionally, 5k’s tend to go out much slower than other indoor events, unbeknownst to Rylan as he was out like a rocket. He had a three second lead on the field 200 meters in the race (generally not recommended). Myself on the other hand, went out with the pack and fell into place somewhere around mid-pack. I was able to get on the rail with little effort which was huge because I didn’t have to expend energy jostling for position.
I came through the first 1600 in around 4:57, which was right where I wanted to be. My plan was to go out on the more conservative side and see what I could do the second half of the race. I knew without a doubt I could run 5-minute miles, so I decided this would be a safe pace to go out in. After the mile, I spent much of the second mile chasing my teammate Logan, as he had separated from the group I was with. This made my second mile the fastest of my race as I came through the next 1600 in roughly 4:52.
I was feeling really strong until slightly past 2 miles, as the fatigue started to catch up with my. I didn’t have a very strong finish as I ran my final mile in 4:56. I finished the race running 15:19, 3 seconds behind Logan. Overall, I had a good first experience with the 5k and I’m excited for this to be one of my primary focuses in the future.
Ps. Rylan didn’t die, he actually ended up running pretty well.
Charlie's Racing Log 