Racing at sea level is a wonderful experience. True, it’s
been 4 years since I’ve raced at sea level and I’d forgotten how amazing it is.
It makes me feel guilty for not taking advantage of it more often. But I can’t
complain: I live in a beautiful area of Idaho with a wonderful community that
supports me every step of the way. I couldn’t ask for more, even if the
elevation of Idaho Falls is 4,700 feet. True, it’s not ideal for most elite
runners because it’s right in-between. In-between the point of oxygen
deprivation (found at higher altitudes), and pure speed (that can be attained
at sea level).
Regardless, racing in New York last month was a good
pick-me-up. I had qualified for three events in the USATF Club National Track
and Field Championships. My dilemma was figuring out what events to actually
run. For some reason, the schedule on the championship website was outdated and
missing certain events. I had pestered the meet director for three months to
put out an updated schedule so that I could plan for what races to run. In the
past, the championship had been a two day event, so I planned my schedule
accordingly.
Unfortunately, the final schedule came out only a week
before the championships. To make matters worse, all my events were on the same
day. Not only that, they were schedule within 3 ½ hours of one another. I had
hoped to run one event on one day, rest, and do another event the second day.
Now, I had to decide if I would do just one or two races in a crunched time
period. The first event was the 5,000m run. I hadn’t done a 5k on a track since
I was a sophomore in college. I personally detested it but I was willing to
give it another go to see if my preference had changed in 6 years.
So, at 10 am I toed the line on the track at the breathtaking
Icahn Stadium (sorry Oregon, New York has a better venue in my opinion). I hadn’t
been training for the 5k so I had no set pace. I was just going to wing it and
see how everything turned out. I gave the race everything I had, and lucky for
me, I actually enjoyed it. But when I finished I was so wiped that I wasn’t
sure if I could do any more races. Here comes the nice part about being at sea
level: ½ hour after my race I felt completely recovered. I almost felt like I
hadn’t even run a race earlier.
So, I decided to give a shot at the next race, the 3k
steeple (scheduled for 12:20). By the time I was done cooling down from the 5k,
it was time for me to start warming up for the steeple. I was beginning to
think it was a bad idea for me to try to run more than one race, but I didn’t want
my time in New York to go to waste. So I toed the line again. Luckily there was
a rabbit that I was able to run behind for the first half, but after three laps
I was definitely more fatigued than I had planned. Still, I gave it every last
ounce of energy and finished as a National Champion*. It wasn’t my fastest time
of the season, but it was a decent performance. I was so excited about the
outcome that I blurted out to my husband that I was going to run the 1500.
Wait, what? I never thought I was crazy enough to do something like that. The
last time I had tripled on the same day was my senior year of high school (8
years ago). And the races I did back then were shorter distances, slower paces,
and they were scheduled farther apart from one another. But the words were
already out, so I went out for my cool down, I mean warm-up.
Either way, I only had 30 minutes until the race started. I
barely had time to put my shoes on and run to the start line at 1:25. I was
already out of breath before the gun even went off. I felt like a slug the
first two laps, and I even considered dropping out. But since I made it half
way I decided to go the other half. Luckily my legs started to pick up a little
more. I wasn’t able to throw in a great kick at the end but I didn’t lose my
place. When I met up with my husband after the race, I joked to him that I
should try to do the 800m run that was scheduled 45 minutes later. He just
about choked!
Coming back home was the best part about the whole
experience. I teared up each night we were gone because I missed my kids and
all the fun things they were doing without us (like Logan going on his first
train ride). The one thing I didn’t miss was climbing stairs. I never realized
how out of breath you can get at 4,700 feet above sea level!
As always, thanks so much to Bill’s Bike and Run and Teton
Toyota cheering for me the whole way. It was great to have your support in New
York!
