Clay and Lisa Burnett

Type: RACE
Race: 1,500m
TOD: 5:30pm
Goal Pace: <3:52.50

Race Results: 3:52.21, 3rd in heat, 9th of 64 overall

Splits: 62, 63, 62, 45

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Warm up: 20min an hour prior to race
Warm down: 1.0

Workout Mileage: 5.0

RACE SUMMARY:

The day was great, about 80 degrees and sunny. We woke up, had the regular oatmeal breakfast and I stretched. I worked for most of the morning and then we went into Naperville to chill in a park on the River Walk. We found a group of middle school students doing skits at a nice amphitheatre and killed an hour or so with the entertainment. After that, we grabbed some Einstein Bagels... Lox Bagel, yogurt, Sun Chips and potato salad. We ate around 1:30, 4 hours pre-race... I believe that this timing to be about perfect. We went back to the hotel, chilled until it was time to go and set off for the track.

We arrived about 2 hours early, 3:30-ish, found a shady knoll on the first turn and relaxed for a bit. My friend Matt Dittrich came down from Chaumberg to watch the race, he arrived as we started a warmup. Lisa joined on the 20 min jog about an hour before the race. She was contemplating a double, 5,000-1,500 but decided against it due to tight calves and torn up toes from the 5,000. The warmup was OK, my legs felt good, not great, they loosened up well, but didn't feel anything much more than normal.

I hit the field, did some strides and race time arrived. I was in the second heat which included only two faster seed times than my own. The gun sounded, I thought I go out quickly, but the race crashed in from the outside lanes and I was in a box... about 80m in the runner in front of me stalled, I had to balance my hand on his back, then I took a shove from behind, throwing me onto my left leg feeling as if I were in a ballet... I recovered, still in the box... I was told I was about third to last throughout the first lap... fine with me as long as the time was good... 62! Perfect!... I remained boxed in... the runner in front of me had a terribly slow cadence, so it was a little tricky running behind him and I feared he would die and cause me to fall back... he held, and it was OK... we hit the 800m at 2:05, Perfect, but I knew I had to move... I found an opening and moved on the back stretch, but so did the guy in front of me... ugh... I had to go well into lane 3 to make the move... I was back on the rail going into the turn, so it was a success, but possibly some wasted time... I moved up continuously, most of the ground was made up from 700-600 to go, but I continued moving hard through 500, then 400... I saw 2:50-ish on the clock as I passed the 400-to-go mark, I hit 1200 at 3:07 then really started to roll... I remember moving hard on the back stretch and lots of coaches screaming relentlessly at their tiring runners attempting to hit the NCAA d3 provisional mark. I came around the curve strong and felt moves behind me, a focused ahead, three runners ahead of me... two side by side in the lead, the thrid decided to move out into lane 2 (thank you) to make his move, I hammered in lane 1, never losing stride or form, I caught a couple glances of the clock and my kick was solid, I knew the time would be good... I finished third behind the two leaders who finished very close to each other... I thought I may have broken 3:52, but the result was 3:52.21, a new PR!

It was a great race, another huge PR... however, I am confident that in a 'perfect' race, if that exists, I can still drop 2-3 seconds. The push at 80m and the move into lane 3 with 700m to go lead me to believe that I could have run about 1 second faster tonight, but I honestly have no complaints! A PR by 0.88 is worth celebration. Lisa, Matt and I grabbed refreshments and some food before we split for Kalamazoo to eat an awesome brunch of Sunday morning.