Jitters

I am starting to get nervous for my race on Saturday. I ran an easy four last night and I felt very herky-jerky the whole time. It was in the 70s with a nice cool wind and that is about all I know about the temp. I started off with an 8:34 mile but I didn't feel loose. I felt a little tight from my track workout but that wasn't it. I felt more disjointed than anything and even after running my second mile in 8:35 I still felt awkward. My knees felt like they needed to pop. I ran my last two miles in 8:23 and 8:25 and felt slightly better but still felt off. I ran my four in a total time of 33:58 which is a little faster than I should have run but not too bad.

I never used to get nervous before a race after my freshman year of high school. I got nervous as a freshman because I ran varsity alot and I was intimidated by the seniors. In my second indoor track meet of my freshman year I somehow ended up in the fast heat of the mile. I think I would have been okay with that except the guy who had just won the State Cross Country title was in the fast heat too. His name was Christian Natusch and he was a German foreign exchange student attending school at Rushville. I had just watched him run the two mile in 9:40 or so and I wasn't feeling good about my chances of not getting lapped once or twice by this guy. My best mile time was only about 5:35 or so and I new that he would probably lap me with about two laps to go if I was lucky. My coach just looked me in the eye and told me to hold him off as long as I could. I have no idea of my splits in the race I just know that I actually started passing people after the first two laps and I knew I was going to run a decent time. I was coming around the last curve on my 7th lap and I heard footsteps rapidly approaching from behind. I just knew it was Natusch and I started to sprint as hard as I could. I held him off until about 50 feet from his finish line and I went into my last lap and finished my race in 5:18. I had just run a 17 second PR for the mile. I didn't care that I got lapped. Natusch ended up running a 4:27 or something.

After that race I quit getting nervous until I started running again when I was 26. I have discovered that I get so nervous that I can't sleep the night before a freaking 5k run. I don't get it but it annoys me. It isn't like I'm running for a State championship or anything, I'm just running a Turkey Trot.