Willamette River

So a quick crack recap of the opening race of the outdoor season: It sucked.

The last time I was in Oregon was in 2009 for the US Outdoor Championships. I didn't run badly there (closed in 54 to run 3:41.8 but missed finals by a tenth of a second), but missing the final was no fun. The day of the final I was instead doing a long run along the trails in Eugene with Bumbi. We had an early wake-up call for the run (8 am...), I was upset about not being in the final, and I had had too many mt. dews the night before (they weren't really Mt. Dews)...the run wasn't going well, so I stuck my head in the Willamette River. It saved the run.

After the race on Saturday I had to get in mileage because travel wasn't going to allow me to get in a Sunday run. I came up on the spot of the Willamette again and really thought about dunking my head in there again. But I didn't. It looked far too cold.

The fact that I even thought about it shows you how upset I was after my race. It wasn't a good one, and it was my own fault for running like I did. As you can see from the video up top, I got out wayyyyy too slow and then never got myself into good enough position to be in the race.

I have the small excuse of being tripped up with 300 to go, but it was my own fault for being in the position to get tripped up. I still closed fairly well, but I gotta get after it in some upcoming 800s and learn how to race it much better. It had been far too long since I'd been in a good one.

Luckily for me, this was the first race of the season and if I race at the level I'm planning to the rest of the way I'll forget this one ever happened. I'll be at Princeton the 22nd racing another 800 before heading to Penn for the open mile there.