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GVSU Tuneup 2018

February 16, 2018 (Afternoon)

Exercise Type: Run

Weather: Indoor Track

Comments:
Today, I ran the 800m at the GVSU Tuneup. Here is my recap.

On the way: Lucas and I drove over to GVSU together. Unfortunately, Austin doesn't ride for the boyz, so he drove up with Natalie RIP (JK, no prob at all). Still a solid road trip nonetheless. I had a goal today of finally getting under the 2 minute barrier in the 800m. My legs did not feel fully recovered from the workout on Wednesday and felt kind of shitty, but I was still pretty confident that I could at least come away with a PR today.

Warmup: I put on my headphones and got 21 minutes of solid running. Both the warmup and cool down were estimates, since I was running on the inside of GVSU's indoor track. I was still going decently fast with my usual pre-race playlist going, so it's close enough. My legs loosened up just a little bit during the warmup. When I chewed my two pieces of run gum, I felt the 1:42 power of Nick Symmonds and Brook's corporate greed coursing through my veins. I knew I was in for a solid race.

800: The race went off and I decided to go off with the leaders. I positioned myself behind 2 guys. Right before 400m, I made a typical RVP, "go-hard-or-suffer-the-rest-of-your-life" tactical suicide move and took the lead. Now was this is a smart idea? Absolutely not. My pre race plan was to wait until 1 lap to go, if I was going to make a move to the front. Nonetheless, I hit the front and came through the 400m in about 57 seconds. When I hit 300ms to go, I knew it was going to be really hard to hang. Coming down the back stretch, 2 guys stormed passed me and I knew there wasn't anything I could do about it. Now most of the time at the end of a race, I would have given and slowed down majorly, but I really focused on digging deep. I definitely lost pace, but I gritted my teeth and tried to keep my legs moving. Coming down the home stretch, I heard a coach yell to another athlete "go to the arms". I followed that advice and really used arms. I tried as hard as I could to kick and just make it to the line. As it turns out, I dug just hard enough to see myself cross the line at 1:59. I immediately knew before looking at the clock that I had finally broken the 2 minute barrier that I've been trying to break since freshmen year. My official time was 1:59.55 and I was third in the 3rd out of 4 heats. (16th overall).

After thoughts: Overall, I was super satisfied with my race. Break 2 has been a long time goal of mine, so it's nice to finally get it out of the way. I also think that me, Lucas, and Austin can go a little faster. All of us ran on tired legs, but managed to PR and at least get close to the 2 minute barrier. I think there's a lot more potential for us, but for the time being, I am super satisfied with the time and just solidifying my place on the 4x800m. Definitely a successful and worthwhile trip to GVSU.

Side notes:

Shoutout to Nicole for a killer mile PR of 5:18. She was in a crazy fast heat and managed to hold her own and kick some ass!

Shoutout to the guy who randomly ran a 4:04.8 mile at GVSU Tuneup. Like wtf, why are you here lol? But I mean good job!

Shoutout to Austin. First on a very solid PR and secondly on a realization that i had today. I never realized that Natalie was taller than Austin. Ya know, at first I was thinking about roasting him for it, buttttttt I actually have mad respect for that. I remember in my shorter days, even talking to taller girls was a tough task. Yet ya know, my boi Austin didn't give a fuck and overcame that obstacle, so I give my respect. Next obstacle is sub 2.

Also shoutout to whatever Subway Lucas and I went to. 9/10 customer service. Also shoutout to Lucas on a solid 2:00.5. Our 4x800 is about to be fire.