Track and Field Blogs - Scott Bauhs

Sorry everyone for the lag in my blogs (to everyone that reads this anyways, Hi Mom!).

I guess I've taken a little vacation from flotrack but its hardly a time to take a vacation from running. My last race was the NCAA DII Championships where I snuck away with a 5000 meter title. I've run 2 5k's this year (assuming you don't count the trial race at nationals) and neither of them have sat well with my stomach. Maybe I'm allergic to Mt. Sac or something but for whatever reason my insides just don't like me very much towards the end of the race down there.

Daniel Kirwa is an awesome runner and he pulled off a pretty amazing double. It took a pretty tough race to hold him off. I may have been lucky that he still had a 10k in his legs from 2 days before because I didn't beat him by much. I am looking forward to seeing what sort of times he runs in the future because he is certainly better than his P.R.'s. (he ran 14:01 (a new P.R.) and we went out in 4:45).

Winning the 5k was hardly the highlite of the week though. It was much more exciting to me to watch Sarah (Montez) pull a huge upset in the 3000 and it was just as cool to see Angel (Marquez) get second in the 1500. To put these marks in perspective, Sarah didn't make the final in the 1500 and came back with a vengance in the 3000. When that girl gets angry, she can really race. She wanted to prove that she belonged and there was no one in that field that could take her. Angel should be at best Chico State's third 1500 runner behind me and Michael Wickman (who was redshirting this year and ran 3:46) but he kicked from 400 meters out and didn't let anyone past him. Braun was the class of the field and I'm not sure Angel could have done anything to beat him but no one else had what it takes so Angel took second. These two races were really inspiring and we can all learn the lesson that if you are on the starting line... then you are in the race and it doesn't do you any good to be afraid of the competition (Keep in mind that you still have to run smart though).

On that note, since NCAA's I have been preparing for the race of my life. I ran a 9 mile tempo on Tuesday at around 5:20 pace. I would have liked to go a bit faster but my legs were tired from driving all day (back from home in the Bay Area) and I was a bit reluctant from the start and then got in a slower rhythm that was hard to break out of. Enough excuses though, it was great to get in one more long tempo and my legs feel much stronger because of it. (I don't know what it is about tempo's but they make your legs feel strong.) On friday I put in a quick speed session to make sure that If anyone is close to me at the finish, I can hold my own. I ran 200,300,400,400,300,200 in 30,45,59,59,44,28 and it felt pretty good.

I've got less than 4 weeks left until the big race and a few more workouts that I need to get in. I'm confident that I will be ready when the gun goes off and I will give it my all to try to make the team. As of today I'm not the USA leader for the year but it doesn't matter, I'm not really afraid of anyone. I don't think most people think that I will be in the top 3 at the trials which is good because I don't like being the favorite. I don't like racing under pressure and I'm going to go into the trials with a nothing to lose attitude. I'm going to have fun out there. 4 years ago I wen't to watch the trials during the summer before my first year at Chico and it will be awesome to be on the inside of the track rather than in the stands.