I never understood the term “tactical” race.
Personally, I think it’s a strategy for wimps who only care about winning. When I run, it’s less about winning and more about running a fast time and beating the crap out of myself. Basically, the entire field runs slow for 3/4 of the race and then everyone just takes off in the last quarter. Nobody ever runs fast this way, and I despise it.
I qualified for the indoor IC4As in Boston for the fourth consecutive year, but only ran it once before since I was injured the past two years. This was supposed to be the big one. Instead, my coach tells me not to lead for the first 2K (of a 5K race), and because of it, I’m forced to sit in a pack of about 10 guys who are tripping over each other because the pace is so slow. I nearly take out my teammate when I step on his shoe.
Finally I get the OK from my coach to pull out of the pack and get things moving, and I do so until about 3500m in. At this point one of the original leaders who was running slow passes me, and thinking he’s going for it, pull in behind and go with him, only to have him slow down again! The rest of the pack quickly catches up and I’m boxed in yet again. It takes another lap and a half until I can get back out (with the help of my teammate) and pick things up for the second time. Of course there isn’t much time left at this point, and so many guys I would have dropped had I run a fast, evenly paced race are still around. I do my best to hold on, but it’s a losing battle, and run 14:17.7, a new personal record by less than a tenth of a second. I’m glad I ran at least that fast, but it could have been better had I gone out harder like I wanted.
Somehow, I’ve made it this far without getting hurt, and I’m still crossing my fingers that nothing serious will happen.
Last week was a real mess with tests and leaving for Boston. Everything turned out okay, though. We wound up getting single rooms at the Hyatt in Cambridge, which was a really nice hotel. Usually we don’t get single rooms and have to share. I slept like a log both nights I was there. There was some high school leadership thing going on at the hotel, which was annoying with all the high schoolers running around and screaming.
Since we got there so early on Friday, we just sat around the hotel all day and then went for a run later in the afternoon, going by the track and then out along the Charles. It was freezing out, under 30 degrees with howling winds. That night we went to Vinny T’s for dinner, the same chain we had gone to three years before when I was a freshman. The portion sizes were just as big as I remembered, and I could barely put a dent in my veal parmesan. Some of the other guys made it into a contest to eat everything, and needless to say, they were suffering every time the van hit a bump on the way back to the hotel. My coach had gone off to the Reggie Lewis track earlier in the day with Sean, whose brother was running in the New England Championships. They were supposed to meet us for dinner, but got lost and spent two hours driving around Boston. I find it funny that the one guy who lives in Boston (or close to it) gets lost. We also stopped at a Trader Joe’s on the way back from dinner, which was the first time I’ve ever been to one of those. I got some granola from there that was really good. Apparently there is a Trader Joe’s in Newport News, so maybe I can check that out sometime.
On Saturday we went to the track since some of the guys had prelims. We were there pretty much the whole day and everyone ran really well and nearly everyone qualified to run the next day in the 800, mile, and DMR. The 5K guys, including myself, do a quick pre-race run around the city and then we go back to the hotel and then make another return to Vinny T’s for dinner. Why we went back was beyond me — there are a million other Italian places in Boston, but we were definitely guaranteed enough food. We spent the rest of the night playing Monopoly on Groff’s computer, and somehow I managed to pull off a win due to a critical deal I made early in the game. We also played the night before, but Groff and Jones colluded and dominated everyone, despite our protests.
Sunday was the big day. The only thing that had been bothering me was that they had the 5K scheduled to be run in 3 separate heats. Fortunately by the time I warmed up, they had merged the heats into two, which (I thought) would make things easier. After the race, we watched the DMR, and then Colin, Ed, and I did a run into downtown Boston, around Boston Commons, and finished at the hotel. We headed downtown again for dinner at Faneuil Hall, which was a lot like Reading Market in Philadelphia. I ate a whole pile of food including this awesome brownie that was nearly solid chocolate. The flight back was a little long, but we got in around midnight.
Now, I’m home since we’re on spring break. My main goal this week is to work as much as I can on the implementation portion of my Computer Science project. I’ve also got to figure out what to do for housing for next year. I don’t know anyone in the graduate programs here, and nearly everyone I do know will be living on campus next year. Graduate housing is separate from undergraduate, so I can’t room with any of them. I’ll probably just have to get a random roommate, then.
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