Rise and Grind: 3:58.73
"Immediately after finishing, I went up to the finish line official, put my hand on his shoulder, and asked, 'That was a full Mile, right?' I wanted to make sure it was real! He looked at me with a confused face and answered, 'Yeah….a full Mile.'"
BBTM Note: This is an excerpt from Eric Finan's blog, Rise and Grind. Eric joined the elite sub-4 minute Mile club at the Adrian Martinez Classic presented by HOKA ONE ONE on June 5.
3:58.73
Wow.
3:58.73.
My first PR in three years. The race video can be found here. My post-race blubbering of excitement can be found here and here. Finally, a small article on the race can be found here.
After the injury riddled winter I had, having only been training for three months, having this kind of race was a big surprise. My confidence has been so down this spring following such a disappointing winter and a rather mediocre race at the Oxy High Performance Meet.
But with my first sub-4 Mile, the win, and meet record, my confidence made a bold move back in the right direction. We have been training hard lately and let up just enough before this race that my legs finally felt like they had some zip to them and fortunately I was able to capitalize on the day.
Going into the meet, the elite athlete coordinator took a chance on me just getting me to the starting line since my previous Mile PR of 4:04.94 was from 2010. When I had run that four years ago, I remember the dream of a sub-4 Mile suddenly became real—tangible. But following that year I took a wrong turn on Unlucky Street and ended up in Injury City. That dream of a sub-4 Mile began to fade and over time it weathered to a silvery grey—a distant thought that occasionally slipped in and out of my mind.
Fast forward to two weeks ago when my Team USA Minnesota teammate, Jon Peterson, and I ran a 5 x (500, 300, 200) workout on the track, all at sub-4 pace. It was one of the hardest workouts of my life, resulting in two collapsed heaps on the track following the last set, yet we were able to maintain sub-4 pace through to the end. It was when I was lying on the track, gasping for air, lactic acid pooling in my legs that the dream of a sub-4 Mile started to gain color again.
Continue reading at: http://ericfinanruns.blogspot.com
