On To The Next One

"Whatever became of the child I was I never want to lose her no
I won't give her up and now my heart is hard and my skin is getting tougher and tougher
That was another world then,that was another time
You can never go back to the place where love is blind
You can never go back to the scene of a perfect crime"
Scene Of A Perfect Crime-Concrete Blonde

Ok so the Jay Z title is a tip of the hat to Lara aka nyflygirl who used a Jay Z title in her blog last week and gave me a shout out,so this is me returning the favour as I look back on last nites 5,000m race and prepare for next Tuesdays 3,000m race.
And the Concrete Blonde lyrics?they will become evident b4 the end of the entry,ok so working in reverse order I took care of business this evening w/ a 65 minute 10 miler,I worried the rain might get the better of this evening but despite grey skies I was out and back and home b4 the heavens opened.

And so to last nite and the 5,000m at Swarthmore,today marks one year to the day I ran at Swarthmore in the 1,500m and hobbled home afterwards w/ the beginning of my achilles heal injury that would ultimately end not only my season but also my dream to be come world champion in Lahti Finland last summer,ironically as I arrived at {the scene of the perfect crime} the men's 1,500m were just beginning....
Having checked in and then gotten my hip number it was warm and stretch time,warm up being the operative word as it was a little chilly b4 the second 5,000m heat was called to the line at 8.40pm.

31 of us,seeds 1 through 15 lined up on the line w/ 16 through 31 behind them, I was seeded 23rd,I got a better reaction to the gun than I did at Widener in the 10,000m but yet again found myself drawn towards the rail as the bottleneck of 31 runners jockeying for position going into the turn began,I cut my stride and swung wide and thanks to a timely hand in the back from someone behind me I made my way up the outside of lane 2 and settled into the back of the chase group.
75 seconds at 400m,just what I was looking for and 4.58 at the mile,identical to my 4.3 UPenn 5,000m.

Unlike UPenn where I always felt I was in contact w/ runners tonite as we got to the mile the field began to splinter and I began to lose touch w/ the runners ahead of me, a few guys went by me but not meny,that said I had no idea of my position w/in the race.
10.09 at 2 miles,if memory serves at UPenn it was 10.14 so clearly the 5 weeks of 45 miles plus per week were paying off.
At UPenn I felt I had to dig deep over the final 1,000m,tonite I always felt I was in control,coming up the home straight to the bell I set my sights on the two Haverford seniors ahead of me plus the Bryn Mwar runner who was going backwards through the field,I'd seen him up near the front earlier.

14.47 at the bell,time to "let the dogs out"I caught the first of the two Haverford guys b4 the middle of the turn and then overtook the second at the start of the back straight,my sights were firmly on the runner ahead and I passed him as we went through 3 miles which is probably why I don't recall my split,for shits and giggles I'd hazard a guess at 15.22.
Off the final turn I powered up the home straight to cross the line in 15.56.5,the last sub 16 man in the field in 23rd out of 29 finishers.
I had hoped to go faster I won't lie but on the nite this was as fast as I could go,a hair faster than the 15.57.7. I ran at UPenn 5 weeks ago and still only a time worth 5th fastest at Worlds last year,that said let's not gloss over the fact I've just ran back to back sub 16 5,000m at 46 period much less after a 5 year hiatus from the distance.

Hopefully in my next 5,000m on June 4th in 3 weeks time I can take more than a second off my time,to have gotten on the podium last Summer in Lahti I'd have needed a 15.38 just for bronze,I've said all along this summer is a blueprint for next year.