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Tony Filipek - Coach Athlete Swag (USA 1 Mile Road Recap)

Published by
tfilipek   Apr 25th 2013, 6:11pm
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Wow!  I had an incredible week.  I am exhausted, yet somehow still more motivated than ever after this past week of racing and traveling. I raced twice, drove over 24 hours worth, almost ran out of gas, and somehow managed to get 34 athletes to California and back without anyone coming up missing!

The week started off Wednesday, in which I had to wake up a 2:00AM to get 4 of our travel vans ready for a 3:30AM departure to the Detroit Airport which is 1 hour and 45 minutes away.  We packed everyone up, hit the road, and issued all the boarding passes.  Once in California for various track meets I had to initially deal with a debacle with our hotel lodging.  There was some double charges to a few of our rooms, and it was my fault (I'm the travel coordinator, screwed up again).  After that we took everyone to the beach.  After an hour and a half everyone packed back up to leave.  My van was loaded with way too many athletes.  Well we got stuck in the usual California rush hour and it took us nearly 3 hours to get back to our hotel.  One of our distance runners brought to my attention that we were way below E and were not even half way back.  I was sweating bullets trying to find a gas station before we got stranded meanwhile everyone was doing carioki to one of our athlete's (DJ Rae Riot's) playlists.  Well we got back and the fun began with racing the next day.

I drove to MT SAC to go pay entry fees then dropped a few jumpers over to Cal State.  Alarms were going off at Cal State and I had no idea what was going on, but dropped a few kids off and later found out that meet was cancelled due to bomb threats on campus (felt like an idiot for dropping them off).  I had 2 female athletes competing in the 1500 at Mt SAC and I was scheduled to be in the 2nd heat of the men's open so that worked out conveniently.  I got just enough time to attempt to coach up my girls before warming up for my race.  I had no idea what to expect considering my stress levels and everything going on, but I just tried to turn my mind off, relax, and clip off a decent opening time.  Well, I was boxed in and moved from 3rd to 16th place in my heat by the time 700 meters went by.  I didn't panic, just slid outside since there was no one else left to box me in and started my 800 meter kick lol.  Within 300 meters I had moved from 16th to 1st place and had to try to hold on.  I ended up taking 2nd in my heat by 3 tenths but considering how much jostling I did the first 700 meters I was happy with the 3:46 that I ran.  My last 800 was a 1:57.7 (Clocked it in the flotrack video where they happened to make fun of my team swag name, lol). 

We had another day of meets and shuttling athletes from place to place kept me busy.  I had 1 female athlete in the 5,000 Friday night so definitely was up late again.  After watching Will Leer run a 13:21 5,000 I was pretty excited plus the SVSU athlete ran a 16:49 which was a school record and D2 qualifier (props to Emily Short).  After leaving the track around 11:30 I went straight to In n Out Burger since we were flying out in the AM.  Then I had to gas up all the rental vehicles to where the original levels were at (in my van's case it was 1/8 of a tank which was why I ended up on E).  I got to bed a little after 1AM just to wake up at 4AM to get ready for shuttles to the airport.  I tried catching some shuteye back to Detroit before driving everyone back to Saginaw.  I got back around 5PM and was able to get a good shakeout in, before resting up Sunday to prepare for my next race.

Monday morning I met briefly with my women's team to give them directions for their interval work.  Then I proceeded onto my 10 hour drive to Des Moines to compete in the USA Road 1 Mile Champs!  I received little information regarding the schedule of events, lodging, etc, so had booked 2 nights at a hotel in Des Moines near Drake.  It turned out to be pretty nice considering I booked cheap on hotwire, but you learn these things when you get to be a coach and travel coordinator.  However, I later found out I had complementary stay at the Downtown Marriott and was supposed to be rooming with Jeff See of Saucony (would have been completely cool with me).  Anyways I slept a lot between arrival and race time.  I got a pre race burger at the downtown restaurant Americana about 4 hours before the race and prepared for the miserably cold windy mile (I mean Grand Blue Mile) that I drove ten hours to compete in.  A couple hours of listening to some music and warming up in my car, then I checked in to get my bib number.  

I drank some vitamin water in the elite athlete hospitality suite and chilled in a room full of a tense, quiet, focused environment of pro runners.  To a high school kid or for a lot of college athletes it would be a dream come true to be in a room for pre race with Leo Manzano, Craig Miller, Heather Kampf, Sara Hall, to name only a few.  Honestly for me, it's kind of a dream come true as well.  With that being said, I have to be a competitor in the race, not a spectator.  I warmed up and toed the line just like it was any other race, and when the gun went off I executed my race plan.  The plan really just consisted of running smart and with the pack, trying to mimic their moves off of the final turn to put myself within striking distance.  In no way, shape, or form did I expect to win, but maybe then that's why I ran a 4:08.5 and took 9th of 10 runners.  I'm almost positive I was the only runner there who did not compete at the Olympic Trials and was probably the least known.  I can honestly say though, I was humbled and proud to be competing with these superstars in respect.  I could not move with the pack the last quarter and ran in a way just to run a respectable time rather than going for the win.  

This is by far the best field I have ever competed with and I feel like I'm very close to making a breakthrough.  This is my second season of focusing on the 1500 having debuted in it last year and I have to think with the way my fitness is right now that I have a big PR coming (shooting for a 3:41.2 A standard for USA Outdoors).  I still feel like my training is extremely raw and am trying to increase my average of 40 miles a week to at least in the mid 50s.  I feel like this will be a safe transition and have been able to do 3 weeks so far this year of 50 mile weeks.  I know that with more fitness and training I will be able to kick with these great milers.  

Anyways, once that was done, I had to head back on my ten hour drive to Saginaw, Michigan.  Hammered out a quick 7miles and core, and got ready to coach the next morning.  That pretty much sums up my coach athlete swag of the week.  Motivated for greatness!

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