Just catching up on some of what happened before the current coronavirus fuss. Our own Sam Lagasse, who I believe is undefeated in FLRC track meets in the 1 mile and 3000m across several years, traveled to Boston University for the world-class Last Chance indoor track meet, where he ran the 5000m. Sam placed 7th in his heat in an astonishing 14:28.72.
As fabulous as Sam’s time was, that was the slow heat, and the fast heat was won by Nike’s Shadrack Kipchirchir in 13.08.25, just edging out Marc Scott of the Bowerman Track Club in 13.08.87. Edward Cheserek of Skechers (the 17-time NCAA collegiate champion known as “King Ches”) was third in 13.09.05, 1 second slower than his winning time in this event last year.
@Sam_Lagasse, any race report? Did you get a chance to hobnob with the guys in the other heat at all?
Hi, Adam. Thanks for the write-up! I don’t know if I have a ton to report. I’d gone to the Valentine Invitational two weeks earlier and had left that meet pretty disappointed with the result (14:52); the 5k hadn’t gone off until ~10pm and, admittedly, I was a bit out-of-practice as far as late-night racing goes. I also hadn’t tapered at all and was still feeling the effects of that crazy 800 workout that I made @apacheck and Alex Drazic suffer through with me on the previous Tuesday. Though I was pretty sure that I should be able to run in the 14:30s, so I told my coach Ed Lane that I wanted to run one more indoor race before switching back to the marathon (my obsession du jour, thanks to @RichHeffron). Ed planned a 10-day taper program and I cut back my mileage from ~75mpw to ~60mpw. At the start of the race, I went out with the pack and just tried to focus on running 34/35 sec/lap, moving up as I settled into pace. Halfway through, I heard a friend (another one of Ed’s athlete’s, actually) yelling that I was on pace to break 14:30. That was all the motivation that I needed. 14:28 is the fastest I’ve ever run indoors BY A LOT, and it’s only 5 seconds off of my outdoor PR (14:23), so I was pretty stoked about the result. The fact that it was the last race of my indoor season also made it special, especially because I’d already run two other indoor PRs (mile, 3k) in the two months prior. I never thought I’d run PRs after college, let alone while dissertating, so it’s really exciting for me to be at this point and also heading back into a marathon cycle. I’m pretty thankful to be working with my HS coach again, to have had some great training partners in Ithaca, to have found a sense of community with the FLRC. As you mentioned, there were a ton of professionals at Last Chance; though I wouldn’t exactly say that I got a chance to “hobnob” with them. I did gawk at King Ches and Jordan Gusman (of Tinman Elite) from 8ft away in a very starstruck kind of way (before this I’d only ever seen them both on Instagram, lol). I’m kind of a shy person and easily intimidated, but maybe there will be more “hobnobbing” next time!
Impressive performance, and congrats on the three PRs. I know it’s hard to have the perspective, but it’s not unthinkable to be setting PRs for years yet. Some of mine came in my late 30s and 40s—you may lose a little zip as you get older, but you also get stronger (and in my case, train smarter).
And as you note, having a great training group is worth a lot. The year I set my second-career mile PR (4:47) was the year High Noon had a slew of fast guys. That year we ran the notorious 31 by 200m workout with a rest ladder (1 minute after the first rep, 45 seconds after the second, 30 after the third, 15 after the fourth, 30 after the fifth, and so on—up and down). I lost conscious thought around 17 reps, and we ended up doing 31 because the guy counting couldn’t think straight either. But at the end, I had no fear of 34-second 200s (and it turns out 15 seconds isn’t enough time to get your hands off your knees, much less to count as rest).
Good luck with the next marathon, whenever that will be!
