Per the advice of my coach and Dale, I broke the race up into thirds. The idea was to be conservative on the first, steady on the second and then race the last third, not letting anyone pass me unchallenged.

THE FIRST THIRD

They combined the men's and women's 10,000 so we all lined up together. It was a little crowded. The starter held the gun up and we all lined up on the dotted curve. SET (we all moved forward onto the solid curve) BANG!

Annnnnd we were off! I tucked in behind the men through the curve then naturally we all spread out. My teammate took off ahead of me and I let her go. Feeling pretty good about my decision. THe other girl tucked in behind me and we settled into pace. I led for the first 800 and was right on target. The other collegiate girl pulled out in front of me for the second.

mile 1: My target was 96 second quarters. We came into the first mile @ 6:27 feeling great. Know what the problem is? Although the 10,000 is a distance race, feeling great is not where you should be lol. My coach simply said, "too slow." So I pulled out in front of the college girl and brought the pace down a notch. I wasn't sure if she would come with me but she did and I was grateful.

Mile 2: It was windy as hell and really rainy. There were significant puddles on the track that we splashed through. I was regretting wearing socks. The girl and I did a really nice job trading the lead and working together. We didn't say a word. We finished the second mile right on pace but still behind the target. Oh yeah, and track racing? I have a lot to learn. I kept forgetting about strategy and passing right on the corner. Finally my coach was like, "Adrienne! Pass on the straights! You are doing way more work than you want to do" Duh!!! Why do I forget the most simple things!?

THE SECOND THIRD

I am pretty sure the college girl and I stepped on each other's achilles/heel no less than 15 times each. I was A. glad neither of us went down and B. Grateful we weren't wearing spikes.

Mile 3: We were still trading on and off. It was starting to hurt a bit and looking at the lap counter SUCKED. "Oh cool, 12 laps to go? fan-effing-tastic. As we finished mile 3 the clock read 19:XX which meant we hit the 5K around 20 and I felt a bit panicked. That was going to be a tough hole to dig myself out of and I wasn't feeling any fresher
Mile 4: I noticed my turns in the lead were getting longer. I was trying to be patient but was starting to really feel panic. One thing that I have noticed as I have progressed in running is that in general, the faster the people are the more humble and encouraging. The sub-30 men were SO sweet and encouraging as they ran by. Complimenting our form and pace etc. Very, very cool and much appreciate. As I closed mile 4 out I gave my coach this Steve Buscemi-wide-eyed look basically saying, "holy-shyte what should I do???" I knew I was on the cusp of the qualifying standard being out of reach and the gusts of wind were deflating, especially now that I was pretty much leading the whole time.
My coach just simply said, "T isn't far ahead. Reel her in."
Having that goal was a godsend. I now had a rabbit and a purpose. I had this vision from a blog I had read about a Lion as a spirit animal, clawing and maiming and killing your way to the front. I was that motha-fuggin-lion and I was on a hunt.

LAST THIRD

Lion or not I was tired. When you are on the track it takes a HELL of a lot of motivation to stay on that track and not just call it quits.

Mile 5: I figured if I could lay down a solid 5th mile, staying calm and collected, I could maybe have enough energy to go cray- for the last mile. It was going to be close though because I was feeling the weeks 50 miles on my legs. On the last lap on the 5th mile I started putting some distance between me and the college girl. I have some momentum coming around the corner and as I approached my teammate I told her to tuck in behind me. No dice. She was done. Just 100% suffering. I, however, was flying.

Mile 6.21371: It was going to be REALLY close if I wanted to hit that standard. I wasn't quite ready to really kick yet because I didn't want to run out of gas. I maintained through the first 800 then looked at the clock. I had to run a pretty quick final 8 if I wanted this. I literally thought to myself, "I could just step off the track. This is terrible" But then I though, "Awww hell no, I don't want to run another 10,000 on the track in a while." and I kicked it in. I started talking to myself, pretty sure it was aloud, "Go to work you f*cking p*ssy (there goes positive self talk ...)" The wind was really swirling and I just felt headwind wherever I was on the track. I came into the final lap and give it everything. As I entered the final turn I dry heaved. I had to hold it together. FInally the straight and I could see the clock 39:2X. I got closer and closer and then it was clear the standard was mine BOOM! 39:46. I immediately pulled off to the corner and had a few more dry heaves then my coach gave me a big hug.

The other two women tricked in. My teammate was WRECKED. SHe had gone out with some guts but what happened to her is exactly what I had feared had I gone with. Either way, it takes some guts to finish out a race like that. She gets mad respect.

HELL TO THE YES I AM GOING TO NATIONALS!

I need to work on the more tactical stuff, not stepping on the feet in front of me, not getting stepped on, not passing on the corners (WTF?) more consistency, more HTFU, more more more .... I have a whole summer to work on track stuff.

I jogged around, grabbed my stuff and hauled ass to the car as I had a wedding to get ready for!


Weather
No taper
Poor track skillz
Full social schedule