Requiem For A 5,000m Race

It's becoming increasingly frustrating to come to the pc and blog about another race going to the wall,the Frontrunners 800m I could put down to a lack of speed work and a 5 hour wait to race,Upen 5,000m bone headed tactics and a lack of speed work so quite why it all went tits up Saturday nite at Swarthmore over 5,000m I just don't know?
I'd had 4 quality weeks of training leading up to the meet and felt relaxed when I arrived at the track just after 6.35pm w/ a 8.25pm race time scheduled.....however the meet went from being 10 mins behind to an hour during the 1,500s and w/ 4 5,000m heats on tap and me being in the 4th it was closer to 10pm b4 I set foot on the track.....this would have huge repercussions later.

Seeded 10th of 23 I had high hopes of being in the mix and hopefully close to a 15.25-15.30 time which would boost my medal aspirations come Sacramento and Worlds in 8 weeks time and from the gun I got a good reaction as I made my way up to 7th coming out of the top turn and through 200m in 35 secs.
W/out a coach,teammate or friend to inform me of my 400m splits I had to rely on what splits I heard coaches,teammates and friends call out to their respective athletes,early doors I was hearing a lot of 76s,latter stages 82s.
1.50 at 600m and 3.05 at 1,000m were the last splits I recall coming through the finish,the problem w/ a 12.5 lap race is splits become increasingly hard to recall and since I'm not schooled in the Alan Webb school of hitting my split button each lap to recall them it's hard to remember post race what I was going through in.

I think I heard 5.05 after the opening mile,a little slower than I had hoped but 15.15 pace for 3 miles and potentially 15.48 pace,not what I wanted but....
Another drawback of a multi lap race is remembering when you got over taken,I had slipped back from my 7th place to the lower places that much I do know.
W/ 6 laps to go I still felt strong,the cynics{of which there are several out there trust me}would say running slower than I can I should be feeling strong,unlike Upenn where I was hanging on for dear life tonite I was able to grind it out,a race w/in a race developed between myself and two runners behind me who overtook me only for me to reel them back in on the next lap....only to overtake me again next lap....and for me to reel them back in and overtake them next lap, and again once more at least I was feeling competitive if nothing else.
15.15 at the bell,it was all well and good dropping a 70 second last lap but 16.25.9. was a far cry from last year when I ran 15.56. here or the 15.25.-15.30. I had hoped to run tonite.

So yet again I get done a race and find myself w/ more questions than answers,the fact of the matter is Worlds is set I can't change events now even if I wanted to,however I don't have to commit to Nationals till July 1st which means some time to weigh my options and consider some June 800m and 1,500m races to see if they produce the desired times I think I should be running right now.
As best as I can tell I'm not carrying an injury,I feel good, training has been going well but why I'm unable to transfer that into my races is beyond me???
Had I not ran 15.47 indoors in January I might subscribe to the theory that maybe just maybe last summers 15.36.8. at Sacramento was me catching lightning in a bottle like I said I feel I have more questions than answers right now and the sands of time are beginning to run out.

An instant bounce back over 2 miles tomorrow at Ichan would go a long way to helping my confidence,we'll have to see what the running gods and weather gods have in store for me....my journey home post race should be smoother................
W/ the meet running behind schedule I missed the last Center City bound train at 10.15pm{got to Swarthmore train station at 10.20pm!!!} and was well and truly up shits creek sans paddle.
No I didn't take a wad of cash or a credit card w/ me,why would I?it's a track meet so a cab was out of the equation and I don't know any other way to and from Swarthmore other than the Septa R3,I don't know what buses or even what roads would lead me in the direction of home........so I was faced w/ 2 choices, sleep at Swarthmore train station till 6.15am when the first train arrived in the morning....or walk along the train tracks untill I got to my stop.......
Let me tell ya those eight stop that only take 15 mins on the R3 took over 2 hours to walk,I did stop at Primos as it was raining and I sought shelter on the platform plus wanted the final Media bound train to bypass me b4 re continuing my journey home.
Insult to considerable injury as I got to Angora just b4 1am the heavens opened and I got well and truly drenched on my final quarter of a mile walk home....trust me this is NOT an evening I'll look to relive anytime soon!