NCAA Regional: Michelle's splits and other thoughts

Having the lens of a few hours post-race – as well as these awesome splits provided by Kathy Gaye (Michelle’s mom) – enables us to have some better analysis of tonight’s career finale. Obviously, I witnessed the race first-hand (sorry for the terribly blurry photo taken by me above). But the splits really tell a story that even I couldn’t see unfolding as it was happening.  Here are a few more observations.

--For the past month-plus, since it was apparent that Michelle would be racing at the Regional meet, we have been stressing out over the fact that she would be running 25 grueling laps in Jacksonville, Florida, at the end of May. Hot. Humid. Bad. Well, the weather was about as favorable as you are going to get for Jacksonville on May 28. Race-time temperature was about 78, but it was not oppressive at all. The humidity kind of snuck up a little, but again for Florida it was very manageable. I even saw a lot of coaches and athletes wearing light jackets out there under the lights. Having said all that … 78 degrees and a little humidity is still really difficult conditions for a 10km.

--The early stages of the race were tough with 48 women on the line. There was a lot of jostling for position. Like most runners in the field, Michelle had to run a bit choppy before settling into a good spot.

--Once she settled into that good spot … the race started rolling. Wow! Look at Michelle’s second 1,600-meter split. Smokin’ fast. We talked about the idea of “committing” at certain points in the race. She committed to this pace and established her spot in the field.

--Once her breathing became a factor, it became a personal battle. These things are not easy. It is so, so hard. As coaches, we can say “relax” and “settle” and all that other stuff. But when you are in the heat of the race, it is not easy to process those words and even more difficult to act upon them. To Michelle’s credit, she was able to ride out every bad patch. Her place in the field did not alter much. She was passed, she passed. She battled, right to the very end. She made us proud that she has worn the Marist red-and-white for the past four years.

NCAA East Regional

University of North Florida

Jacksonville, Florida

Hodges Stadium

Thursday, May 28, 2015

10,000-meter run

25. Michelle Gaye 35:13.64

82.7, 2:48.0 (85.3), 4:12.5 (84.6) 5:34.1 (81.6)

6:54.4 (80.3), 8:14.5 (80.1), 9:35.7 (81.2), 10:56.4 (80.7)

12:18.2 (81.8), 13:40.8 (82.6), 15:04.8 (84.0), 16:28.7 (83.9)

17:55.0 (86.3), 19:21.0 (86.0), 20:48.2 (87.2), 22:15.6 (87.4)

23:42.1 (86.5), 25:09.3 (87.2), 26:35.6 (86.3), 28:02.2 (86.6)

29:30.0 (87.8), 30:57.3 (87.3), 32:24.1 (86.8), 33:51.5 (87.4)

35:13.64 (82.14)

1600m splits: 5:34.1, 5:22.3, 5:31.3, 5:46.9, 5:46.6, 5:49.3