The Good News:
This weekend I placed third in the 800m at the US Indoor National Championships. It was my first time making a final at a US meet and the first time, I think, in any final since NCAA's in 2006. It is also the highest I have finished at a national meet. (8th indoor 2008; 12th outdoor 2006 & 2008)
The meet we really well for me. After running a bad tactical race at the Tyson Invite two weeks ago I told my coaches and agent that it was probably for the better since I learned several key things about running the 800m on a 200m banked track. That held true this weekend. I ran probably the two smartest races I've ever ran on a banked track, in the prelims and finals. I made sure to get myself in a good position off the break and utilize one of my strengths, the size of my body, to help dictate the flow of the race. On a 200m banked track, position is everything. A person typically has to use a lot of effort to pass someone when the straights are only 50 meters long. So simply by running in the outer part of lane 1 on the straights I make someone have to go almost to the outside of land 2 to try and pass. And if they don't get around me they are stuck in lane 2 for the curve, having to run a longer distance.
But anyway, I finally had a couple tactically sound races and it paid off. In the prelim I got out in the 2nd position for the first 400 where I took over the lead from 400 to 650. Then my teammate made a good move to come around me to get the lead. I swung even farther out at that point, into lane 2 so no one else would get around. Mark and I finished close together and both easily advanced to the finals with the 2nd and 3rd best times of the day. That race felt really good and I was relaxed for almost all of it, only having to press in the last 100m or so.
The field in the finals was probably as good or better than it has been in a long time (across the board). It included 2 Olympians, the 3rd place finisher in the 1500 from the day before, myself, and my teammate Mark who has had a terrific indoor campaign this year and ranked 2nd going in to the meet. The race got out exactly how I thought with me in the 2nd position. The field cruised along through the half way at 54, a very slow start. When I saw that I knew things were going to get interesting. I was surprised to see Steve Sherer move so early with 350 to go but stayed patient. With 250 to go everyone was making or starting to make their move. At some point I dropped back to 4th and decided to make my move up the inside with 150 to go when everyone was wide. I moved past a couple people but got road blocked by the leader who, to my disappointment, didn't swing wide to hold people off. Had that move worked I would have been in the lead with 100m to go with a lot left in the tank. But instead I had to slam on the breaks, drift back to 4th again and make a second move coming off the last turn to pass one more guy and take the third spot at the finish.
I'm pumped and excited about finishing 3rd in the US. And maybe even more excited about my tactics and how my body felt. My body felt great for that last 200m and great afterwards. I am really happy with how the indoor season as a whole panned out. It is a great springboard into the outdoor season. Times weren't important for me for the indoor season this year. I wanted to get some good races in, while working on my tactics and feeling that competitive drive I get when I'm trying to run somebody down. So in all, I accomplished those things and now I'm hungrier than ever to get on the track for outdoor season.
The Bad News:
This weekend I placed third in the 800m at the US Indoor National Championships.
If you're actually reading this you noticed that the bad news was also the good news. Why? Because I got 3rd. There were two people that I didn't beat. One being my teammate who I train with almost every day. I guess it's just the competitive side of me but I don't like to lose. I especially don't like to lose when I feel like I could have won. I can point out things in the race that had they gone different the outcome might have been different. But how I really felt was that I was running well enough and was in good enough shape to win it, and I didn't. So even though I am happy with the outcome overall, I know I could have done better and I can still improve in a lot of ways. With that said, I can use the experience to jump into outdoor season, to continue to motivate me to train hard and do the little things right so next time this situation comes up I will win.
What's Next:
I'm going to take a short break through most of this next week to rest and recoup before heading down to Arizona for a few weeks to get away from Eugene for a bit and get some really good, uninterrupted training in. As for competitions and meets for the outdoor season, I really don't have any idea what my schedule will look like. Over the next few week's I'll sit down with me coach and figure all that out.
By the way if you didn't catch the race on ESPN this weekend you missed me sporting the Oregon Track Club's new uniforms. They are pretty sweet so look for more of that this spring! And thanks to everyone for the support. I got a lot of calls, texts, and messages from a lot of people keeping up with me. Thanks!!
