View Workout (Brandon Hahn)

Return to Log

Santa Clara Bronco Invitational

October 15, 2011 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
2 mile warmup, 2.5 mile cooldown. 25:44 (5:02,5:08,5:20,5:15,4:59). Put a considerable amount of pressure on myself going into this race. After the epic fail at Paul Short I have been worrying a good bit about myself. I know that I've been training through for the most part and I was bothered my a lot of things in the week leading up to Paul Short, but I couldn't help but worry about myself. The night before this race I kept thinking, "What if I'm done, and I'm on the decline for the rest of my career?" It helped that Brett and the other guys made it a point over the last 2 weeks to come up to me and tell me how confident they were in me, but the terrible race was mostly uncharted territory for me so I still was worried. Going into the race I made it a point to try and run with Max because he's a solid guy and I knew he would be running well.

Anyway, getting to the race. I got out well and settled in at maybe 40th in the race. It was mad crowded for the first loop and I found myself weaving around, stumbling, surging, and generally working harder than I would have liked. Brett and Max were with me most of the time and Budman was a little in front. When we came around on the second loop and hit the mile, I started to move up just slightly, along with Max. As we came around past the start (1.5 miles in), a pack just in front of us started to break off. I looked at Max and we both knew we had to stay with them. So I picked it up a little and got in behind them. When we hit the hills, people were slowing down so Max followed me and I cleared a path on the left side. We probably passed like 10-15 people during this time. I was just in front of Max, and we settled in after the hills. I kept the pace up, feeling a little heavy on the breathing. As we entered the third mile, my breathing got more labored and I started to slow down. There was not really anyone close to me in front so it was hard to maintain focus. At around the 3.5 mile mark, Max came up next to me and started to pick it up. We passed the 4 mile mark and knew we had to go. We traded the lead back and forth as we surged at our respective times. With 800 to go I thought he had me, but I found something else and stayed with him. As we rounded the tree on the final turn, I started to pick it up for my final kick. Max almost tripped on a root, and I turned towards him because I was worried he was going to fall. He was fine, and we kept sprinting. After about 30 seconds, I started slowing down, and he passed me. With like 30 meters to go, I recovered enough for my final last gasp push, and I got up next to him. We were literally stride for stride with each other until the finish line, where I leaned like a fucking dick (we had chips on) and my arm went in front of him. Anyway, afterward I felt really bad about it, but I think we're still cool with each other. I have serious respect for him, given how well he's running after a year of injury, and I think he knows I would never be so petty towards one of my teammates.

The results put me in front of him, but with identical times, so I'm guessing they did it based on alphabetical order.

Pretty happy with this race. It was slightly faster than Disney, but I felt worse in this race, which might be a good thing. I think I still have more to give this season, and I want to keeping pushing with Max. I'm excited for the next 4-5 weeks.