DFL and DNF

The title of this post pretty much speaks for its self on how I raced this weekend. The steeple was pure abstract horror as I went out the back the first 1k and then struggled to a 1012, a good 44 seconds slower than I ran two weeks ago. Even with the altitude conversion, my pathetic effort didn't even break 10 minutes. I wish that this was one of these races that I could look back and say "Oh this was the reason why I ran this time" but I don't honestly know what happened. The altitude always plays a part in racing at conference, but I think that doesn't cause you the kind of performance that I had this weekend. The 10k was, well, the 10k even if I didn't complete it.

It's funny how sometimes when things are seemingly going great with your training and racing you can still have a sobering performance like the one I had this weekend. When it was all said and done this weekend our distance squad had a rough weekend. We had at least 2 people in every event from the 1500 to 10k yet only managed two 7th place performances. Being a walk-on I have talked a lot about taking advantage of the opportunities that are given to you. Well this weekend was a wasted chance at taking my running to the next level. The way that this weekend went down reminds me of a great blog article by one of my personal favorite runners, Nate Jenkins. A while back he wrote an entry entitled "Nothing hits harder than life" which I feel really speaks to my situation. I know I'm not the first person to have a bad race, so I know that this isn't the end of the world. It just feels crappy. Fortunately I was able to find some kind of hollow victory in knowing I didn't have the worst day in sports, especially since I wasn't wearing a Boston Bruins uniform, who had just completed giving a way a 3-0 series lead and then a 3-0 lead in game season, ending their playoff run. So I feel a little better about my run after knowing there are 30 or so guys who are a lot more pissed about how they did than me.

That Nate Jenkins blog entry can be found here, and its a must read/bookmark. It always hits the spot especially when I feel like I'm not running to the best of my ability or just have a really crummy workout.http://www.flotrack.org/saucony_2009xc/blogs/64831

Despite this less than stellar finish to my sophomore year, I really couldn't be happier with how I have progressed as a runner and as a human being. Especially after a really really shaky cross country season, I couldn't have pictured my self as a 8:25 3k/9:28 steeplechaser at all until it actually happened. I had some good races where I really took advantage of the moment, but I know that the next step in my progression as a runner is running well not only during the season and continuing to get faster as it progresses, but to also run well at the big conference meets and score points. So hopefully I can look back in a couple of years and laugh about how far I have come.

Until then, I'm going to analyze the ole' log and talk with my coaches about how they thought my season went and then I'll make sure to work on those things this summer and hopefully, HOPEFULLY, will have another year of great running and some more unreal improvements.

Hope everyone is running well. Do Work!