down to the wire

I had two last-chance meets this weekend, the first was IC4As at Princeton on Saturday, the other was the Tuppeny Twilight Meet at Villanova Monday evening.  IC4As could have gone better to say the least.  I ran a perfect 1200 split of 3:06, although I struggled to get there, then tied up hardcore over the final 300 to finish in only 3:56.7.  Monday at Villanova was unfortunately a somewhat similar episode, except not quite as bad.  I was actually running extremely well for the first 3/4 of the race.  Tim said he had never seen me look so good during any race, even the 4:09 mile.  I gradually worked my way up to the front of the pack, and cruised through the 1200 in 3:05, still feeling strong at that point.  Around 200 to go I think I starting making a deliberate effort to kick, during which I probably began to overstride rather than just increase my turnover, and this is what could possibly have led to my legs tightening up the same way they did at Princeton.  Right behind my knees became very sore and I couldn’t even lift my knees up for the last 100.  So I faded from first to about fifth and finished in 3:53.97, which is only a 0.4 second PR and a national provisional qualifying time that is not good enough to make it there.  So it was a bittersweet race.  And now my quest for three trips to nationals in the same year has really come down to the wire.  I am literally down to my last race, as I will be traveling to Springfield College for ECACs on Friday, after which there are no more meets at all before nationals.  So this is it – one race, 1500 meters, and everything on the line.