1500m Gong Show & 5 Second PB (Don't give up)

I had a tough training week with lots of kilometers of skating. I raced the "tough man's" program on Saturday of 1500m/5k. 1500m was paired with Andrew Love. I had skated all week on one Maple Gold Steel skate on my right foot (thanks Mark) and my normal Maple Aluminum on my left. Got my broken skate (see last post) back from John Dimon Friday. I didn't have time to hook it up till Friday night. Probably should have waited till after the races but? The two different blades actually had felt ok all week??

You know what was funny is that Andrew smoked me in the 1500m. I was glad for him he skated a PB. He said he heard me coming in his mind last lap and that helped him. I was way behind but I guess my claps are loud. I was pretty fried with training, racing Wed, intervals etc.....

I had a decent opener (300m) in the 1500m then my left leg sort of gave out in the turn and I almost fell coming out of the turn. I stood up in the straightaway still had a ok lap of 28.6 then he went "over the top" of me....from Outer to Inner with 1.5 to go. He was slowing (but not the way Andrew usually slows) and I had to yield at the last minute to cross to the outer. I gave up at that point and went 2:01. Last lap I really gave up. I hate giving up in a race. First thought was I have a 5kilometer in 25 minutes. Then I was thinking I'm too old for all this training then trying to race....what am I doing racing with all this training load. Everyone else is more rested, why do I do this sport?......how in the world am I going to do a 5k in 25 minutes????? I should just go home right now and rest. My ego was bruised with one of the worst races in the 1500m in a while....but who cares it's a training race. You still want to do well.

I get my skates off quick, forget about the race (really had no time to dwell on it), jog......then get skates on again at the 5k start line. Get up for my 5k....no time to skate and hope for the best. I'm racing Liam Ortega (national team member and 20 years my JR). His personal is 6:49...mine 7:17. I'm ahead, I'm behind, I'm ahead....etc....I couldn't believe I was keeping up with him. My goal after the 1st race was to skate .000001 faster than my Personal Best. I told Liam this before the race based on how I felt. But once you are in a race whether it's a weekend TT or the World Championships of Right Now you are in a race. There's something special about forgetting about all your problems issues and life and just being in the RIGHT NOW.
Skating 33s and 34s depending on who had inners....I'm looking at 8 to go and thinking I'm so hurting....but i'm holding my lap times?......then 6 to go....hurting bad but kept building inner turns to stay even with him or ahead....i have a PB going just keep it going......4 to go.....how am I going to finish I'm thinking.....ok do 2 laps then you only have 2 to go. You can do 2 laps it's only about a minute. You can grunt out two minutes. I heard Jerica Tandiman's dad (Edwin) every lap urging me on. It's funny in a 5k there's more time to hear things....thanks Edwin that helped so much. There were others cheering but he was right in the middle of the straightaway where I was trying to relax as much as possible. I'm ahead with 2 laps to go and thinking I'm going to win this pair. I start putting hands on legs with 2 to go and drop to 35s.....what kept me going is I knew I had a PB.....he gets on me then flies by me with one to go....another 35....he ends on 34/32. I skate a PB by 5 seconds and I can't even let out a whimper as I cross the line because I am in seeing black with my hands on my thighs. I cruise around for two laps till I feel like I'm back on the planet.
A lot of people were cheering me on which I heard. I think people could tell I was hurting but I gutted it out. That was a great race! Moral of the story, "Don't give up". I guess the 2nd moral is "give up"????