David McNeill: My Trip to Fayetteville, Ark.

Photo by Cheryl Treworgy/PrettySporty

My Trip to Fayetteville, Ark.

After two unsuccessful attempts at an indoor season – both marred by injury – I had finally made it to the final weekend in Arkansas as a Lumberjack, in some semblance of good shape.  It was the NCAA Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships, and Javier Villarreal and myself had been charged with the responsibility of flying the flag for the entire Lumberjack ensemble, who back in Flagstaff, were cheering in front of their computer screens.

We happily departed the cold and snow of Flagstaff on Wednesday morning, headed for Phoenix with Coach Heins and Coach Saatara.  We enjoyed a fairly direct route into Fayetteville, after a ziz-zag trip across the country two weeks earlier en route to a successful conference championship.  I had a busy weekend ahead of me, and some results to make up for after missing the bulk of the previous two seasons.  It may or may not also have been my last chance at an indoor national championship, so I wanted to give myself every opportunity to capitalize, by entering in two events, the 3k and the 5k.

It had been an interesting season leading into the championships, and by no means, an ideal lead-in.  I had struggled to even catch my breath on easy runs at the start of the season, and workouts were a constant struggle.  There was much reason to believe that the season would go the same way as the previous two years, other than the fact that my body was in fact holding together; I was not injured, and I had no signs of any musculotendinous or joint-related niggles. I may have felt unfit and out of energy, but part and parcel of training at 7000 feet is accepting that you have good days and bad days.  I think I had enough bad days during the first month of the season to ensure a smoother ride through the second month of the season.

Qualifying for nationals this season included a new PR in the 3,000-meter run in Washington, and a freak epiphany one Friday morning that I could make it to Nationals in the 5k as well, that prompted Coach Heins to set up a last-minute 5k race in Flagstaff (which I ran a qualifier in).  It had therefore been a reasonably good season to date, so the trip to Arkansas was more about icing on the cake.

But admittedly, I was greedy entering the championships, and I really wanted to take a national title, possibly even two.  The first race of the weekend was the 5k on Friday night, and competition came in the form of the NCAA cross country champion, and NCAA 10,000m record holder, Sam Chelanga of Liberty.  On paper, he was fields ahead of me, but in my mind, I had leveled the playing field, and told myself I had a chance.  I figured the gun would go, and Sam would set a blistering pace, leaving me to hang on for as long as I could, and possibly as long as three miles, at which point I might unleash a kick.  But Sam didn’t go to the front, and since I had in my mind that I would be running a fast race, I tried to set the pace as best I could, yet not quite as fast as I had hoped.  Truth was, it was early in the year, and I was far from being in my best shape.  But I was in the same boat as every other runner hoping to be running well in June, so I just did my thing, realizing that I was probably just as fit as everyone else.  Sam stuck behind me, and the field was all intact.  It was anyone’s race.  Sam and I both threw in a few surges to break up the field, but neither of us was brave enough to sustain a surge for long enough to really break away from the field.  At 4k in, there were still six or seven people in contention, so the pace needed to increase.  Finally, Sam and I had a small gap on third place, and as we entered the final lap, I was still in front.  I increased the intensity one more time, only to have Sam come onto my shoulder with 150m remaining.  It was like I was being chased with a cattle branding iron, nervous to be so close to Sam, and so I changed gears again, and remained in front of him till the final turn. I gave everything to the line, and cross in first place, and not quite sure of what to do with myself.  I succeeded in doing what I had wanted to do for a couple of years now, and now that I had done it, I was already thinking…what next?  I was thinking what next, before I thought, wow, I can celebrate now.  But the 3k the following day was on my mind, and I thought, this is a chance to do something better than winning a title…winning two titles, and so the battle continued, and the celebrations would have to wait.

I spent another day of waiting for the evening to arrive on Saturday, and willed my legs on to recharge and feel good again after a tough 5k the previous night.  I had done all I could to recover – a post-race meal of sushi, plenty of fluid, and a night wearing the compression tights.  Despite reasons to be confident, I was still nervous.  I told myself the 3k was just a bonus, and that I had already done what I had come to achieve.  But I was greedy.  The 3k was my favorite event, and I wanted to be competitive.  But I was scared that my legs would be out of energy when I hopped on the track.  It was simply a case of too much time to think between races, and so I finally got to the track on Saturday night, and just went about my business, trying not to focus on my expectations.  Truth be told, the race started, and there wasn’t as much bounce in the legs as the night before, but I was determined, and so I hung tough.  The race went out slow, and I was surrounded by fast 1500m runners – not the most comforting position to be in.  So I hit the lead with a mile to go, hoping the legs would speed up, but they did not.  My hopes of stinging the field with an all out final mile were not going to happen, so I had to be smart.  I held my position on the outside of lane one, so that I would be less likely to be boxed-out to the back of the field if anyone tried to kick past me.  The race gradually got quicker and quicker, and when Dorian Ulrey hit the lead, I unfortunately would only have enough kick to stay with him, but not quite pass him. 

And so I held onto second place, somewhat frustrated that I had not been fitter.  For had I been fitter, I likely would have recovered better from the 5k, and been able to kick from further out in the 3k.  But had I been so fit now, my prospects of being in good shape in June may have been reduced.  And so I left the indoor championships, happy to have won a title, but incredibly motivated now to improve my fitness, improve my speed, and be the best Lumberjack I can be for the rest of 2010.

Massive, massive props to Coach Heins and all my fellow Lumberjacks for providing me with a motivating and enjoyable environment of friends, and fellow athletes to get me to where I got this weekend.  We are now the eighth-best men's indoor track program in the country, not because of a first and second in the 5k and 3k, but because we have a group of athletes, motivated to be the best, and for whom the spirit and ability that I took to Arkansas was built upon.  Lets go get ’em this outdoors!!!

-David McNeill