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CXIII

October 13, 2012 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Cross Country

Comments:
This day may be the greatest moment of my running career so far. With the exception of championships, I felt that the 2011 cross country season consisted only of frustration and sentiments of inadequacy every time I ran beside (and more often behind) my elders and betters. Few races pleased me and even fewer workouts. Even at Bullis, I only managed 20:20. It was when winter rolled around that I realized that I would need to push myself more than I ever had before; I would have to REALLY work at it. I'm not sure why it took me that long to figure that out. I had an occasional good 4x800, or mile, but I knew there was still more to do. With the advent of the spring track season, I embraced the 3200m--as Anant put it, "my calling." In the background of all this, for example on a freezing weekend run, or on the car ride back from practice, I thought of summer, knowing that I would have to train in true Daniel Samet fashion in order to even hope to make up some ground. And so I did. Then there was fall.
The 19:14 at Oatlands, though a 2-minute and 32-second improvement over last year, was a hollow achievement . Whether I admitted to myself or not, I knew that some time had to be shaven off. Furthermore, the only thing that got me through episcopal relays was 10 hours of sleep and 3 doses of day quil. Potomac turned into a hill workout after mile 1 and Salesianum was simply a race, independent of linear time, more a matter of who got there first. But today, the Glory Days invitational was another affair.
The entire team performed superbly, boys and girls, varsity and JV. So many personal bests! After the gun, the race was very crowded--like Kevin Sullivan of Canada, I was jostled at the start line and had to elbow many other guys to work my way up. When we rounded the first turn next to the row of trees, Anthony said, "Get to the edge Liam!" It seemed to me that I had more speed readily available to just pass people. At the mile I heard Berenson say 5:47. Struggling to prevent my mind from falling asleep, as Darren had warned us about, I took quick strides up the first hill, and by the time I was at two miles Anthony yelled, "11:39, Liam, you're flying, the next mile's down hill!" All but two of my spring track 3200s were significantly slower. I put together a pretty good kick, getting up on my toes, and passing more people. Near the finish line Sammy screamed the time enthusiastically. After crossing the line I had a tiger woods style fist pump, almost cried in disbelief. 19:06 to 17:49, -1:17!
Later that evening I wrote on Anant's wall because he said if you run better than my PR, let me know.