Spencer Johnson gets 15th in the 10,000-meter run

Spencer Johnson battled gamely in challenging conditions Sunday night at the USATF Junior Championships’ concluding event, the 10,000-meter run, at Hayward Field. Race-time temperatures were in the low 90s with a searing sunlight blazing on the famed track -- far from ideal conditions for a 25-lap race. Spencer placed 15th out of a field of 20 runners in 34:05.93.

The time was nearly two minutes slower than his qualifying mark of 32:19.34. But, consider this: Only 7 of the 20 entrants actually finished faster than the qualifying standard. And, consider this: Spencer’s qualifying time was by far the slowest of the 20 competitors in the field; the standard was 32:20.00, which Spencer made by an eyelash in that oh-so-memorable race at Stony Brook back in April.

Shortly after the race, a very loyal alum and follower of our program, texted, “So not a good race?” On paper, the time was not great. And, as

you’ll see in the splits, the pace slowed dramatically as the race wore on. However, there are compelling reasons why we can classify this as a strong effort from our little dynamo from Bristol, CT:

--The aforementioned statistic that he was the slowest entrant in the field.

--The early pace was surprisingly fast – for the field, and by default, for Spencer. The leaders went out at about 4:45 pace, crazy fast in those conditions.

--Early on in the race, when he was basically rolling 5km pace in a 10km race in tough conditions, Spencer was in last place and was gapped from the field by about 5 meters. Mentally, this had to be tough for him. But he gutted it out and caught several runners, who were slowing mightily in the hot weather.

It is very rare, at a championship meet, to see water being handed out on the track. But that’s how hot it was. On the back stretch, there was a water station.

Spencer took water early on, but found it was making him cramp up, so he just passed on the water for the second half of the race. He got through it. He toughed it out. A great experience for him, and great exposure for our program. Nicely done.

Here are his lap-by-lap splits …

74, 2:30 (76), 3:45 (75), 5:00 (75)
6:17 (77), 7:33 (76), 8;50 (77), 10:09 (79)
11:29 (80), 12:49 (80), 14:11 (82), 15:34 (83)
16:57 (83), 18:20 (83), 19:45 (85), 21:10 (85)
22:34 (84), 23:59 (85), 25:28 (89), 26:55 (87)
28:24 (89), 29:50 (86), 31:16 (86), 32:42 (86)
34:05.93 (83.93)
First 5km: 16:15
Second 5km: 17:50.93
1600-meter splits: 5:00, 5:09, 5:25, 5:36, 5:45, 5:47

Note: Thanks to Kristi Licursi for taking these great photos of Spencer's race. You'll note the multitude of empty seats at historic Hayward. Also, it should be noted that Spencer took the great photos of Kristi's race on Saturday morning.