Jay Carisella Track and Field Invite

On Saturday December 4th I made my way down to Boston for the Jay Carisella Track and Field Invite at the Reggie Lewis Center. I had been looking forward to this race for a while and was thinking I would have a good shot at my PR (15:28) after some great training followed by a couple lighter weeks. Of course on Friday I started feeling like I might be getting sick, by Saturday morning I knew I was getting sick. But I was still thinking I might be able to put in a good race. After a 3 mile run out side I went back inside and hit the track for some more easy running. Once they called the 5k I found out I was in the second heat, seeded 4th. During the first heat I did some strides on the infield and took some pictures of the first heat.

Nate Jenkins and Ruben Sanca

Justin Fyffe

Patrick Rich (in Red)

Then it was go time! We got lined up and off we went. Everyone shot off the line and I was buried in the field of about 22-23 guys. The good news was I was on the rail, but I was boxed in so bad it was ridiculous. I spent the first mile just trying to be calm, hold my position and stay close to a solid pace. But I just felt like I was holding back a lot and kept having to slow up to avoid running over guys in front of me. I hit the mile in 5:02, not awful, but I wanted to be about 7 seconds quicker. Finally I got to the outside and started making my way towards the front. Over the next mile I picked people off every lap and I was finally running a pace that felt closer to my goal pace. By about the two mile mark I had made my way all the way up to 2nd place and I had gone through the two mile mark in 9:57 (4:55 mile). Now I was all alone in 2nd place and 1st place was a ways ahead and there was little chance I was going to catch him. At this point my legs actually felt OK, the bad news was I starting to have trouble getting air in as my congestion started catching up to me. I did my best to try to hold a solid pace, but my pace was slowing a bit. About half way through the third mile a guy caught up to me and passed me. I tucked in behind him a let him lead me around the track for the next four laps, passing 3 miles in 15:07 (5:10 mile) I then kicked it in for the finish passing the guy in front of me finishing second in my heat in 15:42. Not great, but it could have been a lot worse. I ended up 17th overall in the 5k out of 63 guys.

After the 5k heats finished I headed out for a nice cool down with some of the CMS guys including Justin Fyffe, Patrick Rich, and Jeff Goupil. It was nice to get out and get in a bit of running with those guys. Sounds like I may be seeing more of those guys at some of the up coming indoor meets.

Results