Going Out Fast at Footlocker Nationals

I hadn't intended to write any more about cross country, but having just watched the webcast of the Footlocker Nationals again, I can't help commenting on the races.

Footlocker Finals - Webcasts

Specifically, the boys and girls races featured almost identical tactics from the early front-runners, Jordan Hasay in the girls race and Luke Puskedra in the boys race. Both went out fast -- no surprise there -- and both continued to push the pace, presumably in an effort to build insurmountable leads early.

Hasay came close to accomplishing her mission, as she strung out the girls pack with splits of 2:31 at 800m, 5:18 at the mile, and 11:02 at the 2M. At one point, Hasay had at least a five-second lead, but the chase pack stayed close, and Florida's Ashley Brasovan went by with about 1000m to go and won the race. Hasay ended up third.

Hasay's mile splits were approximately 5:18/5:44/5:55.

In the boys race, Puskedra took the pace out hard from the gun, running 2:10 for the first 800m, and 4:28 for the first mile. Even at that pace, he never had much more than a 1-2 second lead over the chase pack, which included Colby Lowe and German Fernandez.

By two miles, Puskedra had been joined by Mike Fouts, but Fouts did not seem in any hurry to take the lead. He waited for a minute or so, and then accelerated away at about the 10:20 mark. Meanwhile, Clint Derrick was moving up into sixth. Fouts opened up daylight on Puskedra, Lowe et al., and charged up the final hill on his way to a national title in 14:50. Derrick finished very fast to take second in 14:57. Puskedra ended up fifth in 15:15.

Puskedra's mile splits were approximately: 4:28 / 5:00 / 5:25. Fouts, on the other hand, ran a 5:00 final mile.

So what to make of this... One might conclude that going out fast isn't a great strategy, but I think it's more complex than that. After all, if the goal was to run even splits (which the textbooks tell us is the most efficient way to run), then everyone went out too fast, including the race winner. And it's possible that Derick, the guy who ran the most even race, waited too long tro establish contact with the front of the race. We can't know this for sure.

When I was watching the boys race, I recalled watching Dan Robb run the 800m at the Class A meet his senior year. Dan was feeling really good that day and went out very fast. He came through 400m in about 56, as I recall, and was leading the race by about 10m over a very talented field. He kept pushing and still held the lead at 600, but several runners passed him in the stretch. He still finished fourth, however.

I remember what Coach Blackburn said that day: he said that Dan ran the first 300m perfectly, but that he never stopped pushing. He said that if Dan had been able to relax and let his natural running form take over, he would have been able to conserve energy and defend his lead late in the race.

When I was watching the videos of the footlocker races, I had the same sense. It wasn't that the races went out fast, it was that once having taken the lead, it seemed that Hasay and Puskedra felt the need to keep pushing the pace. In any other race, they might have run away with victories, but against the very best runners in the country, their early pace was too costly, and they couldn't defend their leads late in the race.

I know, I know, it sounds simple and it really isn't. Nor is it an easy thing for the other runners in the race to hang on through those scalding early miles and challenge late in the race. But it brings home to me once again the difference between a truly championship caliber race and everything else. In a race among the best, there's no margin for error or allowance for moves that sap one's energy.