Mt. SAC 10000m and a PB

5:20 am the morning after racing 10000m late last night. I usually don’t sleep much after a night race. It’s a combo of the race, and caffeine which I only have before big meets.

The race went really well. I ran a 25 seconds PB of 28:16, 4^th place. It was a fun race to be in. The weather was perfect, a nice pack formed up front, and I even felt good enough to do some leading. I did get a little worried however that I was going to have to lead the majority but thankfully Juan Romero of Mexico was feeling up to the task and took over again just after half. It seems like Romero or I were in the lead for most the race, more him then I.

We had a nice negative split, something like 14:14/14:02 for me. A lot of that came off the last couple laps when the pace really picked up. Having the three pull away from me down the back stretch didn’t feel great but when I heard what the winner closed in, 58 sec last lap, I was more ok with my finish. It’s still something I’ll have to work on though.

Next race on tap is a big one, another 10000m, this time in Stanford May 4th. My time should now be good enough to get me in. I’ll have an opportunity to go for sub 28:10 which is Canada’s Olympic B standard. The standard is far from a sure ticket to Beijing but for me it’s something on the horizon to shoot for. Now back to Guelph for a couple good a weeks of training.

Watch the race here Mt Sac 10000m

Mt. San Antonio Community College
          Mt. SAC Relays - 4/17/2008 to 4/20/2008          
         "Where the world's best athletes compete"         
             Hilmer Lodger Stadium-Walnut, CA              

Event 384  Men 10000 Meter Run Invitational
===============================================================
  Name                    Year Team                    Finals
===============================================================
Finals                                                       
1 Rono, Aron                   Azusa Pacific         28:13.75
2 Romero, Ju�n                 Athletics Mexico      28:14.65
3 Safronov, Dimitry            Unattached            28:15.11
4 Gillis, Eric                 Canada                28:16.98
5 Downin, Matt                 New Balance           28:19.48
6 Medigovich, Brian            Adams State           29:05.55
7 Mutanya, Obed                Elite Athletes N      29:07.52
8 Glaab, Joshua                Unattached            29:57.36
9 Scribner, Robert             Mississippi St.       29:59.33
10 Hine, Zachhary               Cornell               30:33.35

Watch my race LIVE

10000m, 10:50pm PT

www.flotrack.org

Personal best heading in 28:42

Last week in Flag

One week to go. So far the trip has been everything I wanted and more. Adjusted well to the altitude, feeling comfortable in workouts, tons of trails, met some interesting people, weather’s been awesome (aside from the wind), and living arrangements, well what can I say we have our own house.

We were on the track yesterday for a windy and wild session. Like I’ve mentioned it’s almost always windy here but yesterday was something else. We had planned to work in gear changes but dropped them after one rep. A 30 mile an hour head wind on the home stretch was enough change in pace. With the wind, altitude combo we didn’t come out feeling overly speedy but were pleased to get it in.

One interesting thing about the climate here is that it can be well above zero and still snow, happens to be doing it right now. In the three weeks we’ve been here it’s only sprinkled rain a few minutes, sunny the rest of the time. Locals say July and August are the times to expect rain, monsoons actually. You can see the evidence of flash flooding on runs.