Clay and Lisa Burnett

Type: Race
Workout: 1500m
Goal Pace: Sub 4:07; Sub 4:50

Clay: 3:59.21 - 1st in heat, 3rd of 29
4:16.9 1600 equivalent

Lisa: 4:47.76 - 3rd in heat, 3rd of 25
5:08.7 1600 equivalent

TOD: 11:36am; 11:50am
Warm up: 2.5
Warm down: NA
Extra Work: Active Isolation Stretching Zones 1, 5
Total Miles: 3
Weekly Mileage: 45

RACE SUMMARY

The day started out well, turned into a scramble, and then ended extremely well... Lisa and I drove to Charlotte on Friday, hoping to arrive between 5 and 6, take a short 15-20 minute run to loosen up our legs and then grab dinner with friends. We hit traffic and didn't arrive until 7, just before the OSU basketball game tip-off, so we skipped the evening run for dinner and the game. We woke up around 7:30 and went for a 10 minute jog around 8 just to loosen up, our heats were scheduled at 11:30/11:50 (we thought), then ate a good breakfast and checked our heat sheets... disaster?

At 9:00am I found that my 4:07 1500m qualifying time was only enough to place me into the "development" heats which were run at 9:25am... no way to make it to the track in time. I was bummed, but it was my fault as heat sheets were posted earlier in the week. So we figured we would go to the meet and see if they would be flexible enough to add me to the "hot" heats at 11:50, but I wasn't hopeful.

Thanks to some good, friendly southern hospitality, I was able to jump into the slower of the two hot heats at 11:50! I never lost focus through the situation, I was calm and not thinking about the race which is pretty typical for the "day of race" mentality for me. I do my visualization, stressing, tactical thinking etc. in the days leading up to the meet to avoid letting a situation such as this really throw my mental state.

Lisa's Race

Lisa was to run at 11:30, so she ran a nice warm up and was ready to go at race time. Lisa's synopsis coming soon...

Clay's Race

I stepped to the line on the far outside, knowing that everyone in the race had an entry time about 4 seconds faster than my PR. With this in mind, I was just going to run my race and see where it lead. The gun went off and I was last to the 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500... dead last. However, I was on pace for a PR... 65 seconds at the 400, which meant that everyone else in the race just ran between 58-63 for their first quarter, a pace that most surely could not hold. I felt fresh, and made a slight push around 500 to pass a few runners around the bend. Between 600 and 800 I continued to move up, or the guys who blazed out in a 58 fell back, either way that was fine with me. 800 in 2:10, right on!

The leaders were a good 40 meters ahead, but I knew I was going to win at this point, I had so much left. The goal was to run a 4:24 mile equivalent, which would put me at 4:05 for the 1500... I was ahead of that and felt as if I hadn't even started the race. I was fresh with 700 to go so I really started to move. I put myself in the top six on the back stretch, rounding the 900 through the 1000 I built momentum... 1000-1100 I started to fly, 3:13ish at the 1200... with only 300 left my mind really fell into thoughts of our recent speed work, cranking out 300 meters was going to feel great... the leaders were still about 15-20 meters ahead, but they were going to be toast before 150m left. I felt smooth and strong... pushed on the back stretch and was third going into the final 200m. Continuing the increase in momentum I blew past the leaders and never even had a worry in my mind that anyone would catch me... I continued to pick up the pace through the finish winning by 1.4 seconds...

3:59.21!!! 4:17.4 1600 equivalent!!!

Splits: 65, 2:10 (65), 3:13 (63), 3:59 (46)