A Time to Find Their Place
Trio of CSU women set to attack 10K with a different mindset
Mike Brohard
The distance is the same. The approach is not.
The NCAA West Regional Preliminaries, held May 24-27 in Sacramento, Calif., will set the stage for the top 48 performers in each individual event (save for the multis), with the top 12 advancing to the NCAA Championships June 7-10 in Austin, Texas.
It is a meet with no finals, no champions declared, meaning times and distances are of little concern, only where an athlete places. It requires a different mental approach. In the case of the women’s 10,000 meters, it takes on a different focus considering the distance of the race, and the distance the qualifiers have covered to arrive at this point.
It’s not an event where times are hit regularly through the season. It requires strategy on the part of coaches as when to do it, leaving ample opportunity to recover to run an even better race when the stakes are grander and the definition of “better” takes on new meaning.
When you look at the field, 41 of the 48 competitors all hit their mark at one of two races – the Stanford Invitational or the Bryan Clay Invitational. Those were competed more than a month ago, Stanford on March 31, Clay a few weeks later on April 13. The trio of entrants from Colorado State – Annabel Stafford, Lily Tomasula-Martin and Sarah Carter – all hit their marks for the 10K at Stanford. All three of them, split between two heats, ran the top three times in school history, with Stafford standing as the school-record holder, followed by Martin and Tomasula-Martin.
Two weeks later, all three of them went to the Clay to run the 5K. Again, all three of them qualified for the West Preliminaries, though only Carter – who set the school record in the event -- will attack both races this week.
“The outdoor season, when we went out to Stanford, we approached it like all you need to do is run a mark to be in the top 48. You don’t want to be 48th, but we knew if they could run between 30-33 minutes, they’d be fine, and sometimes it’s to your advantage to not shoot for the stars,” said CSU distance coach Kelly Hart. “We tried to go out at that pace, and Annabel’s heat went out way quicker than that, and she did a really good job of staying patient early and slowly coming through the field. Lily and Sarah, their heat was more evenly paced but still quicker, and they all ran better than we expected; all of them ran under the old school record, so that was pretty incredible.
“The only races that matter to us outdoors are conference and regionals. Stanford, we needed to get the mark to go to regionals, and then at conference, do what we need for the team points. We were fortunate going into the 5K at conference to be ahead by enough that Lily and Sarah were able to rest, so it was just be ready to go at regionals.”
Ready. For anything.
The temperature. The pace. The way they feel as individuals and the way the pack approaches the race. All of it is on the table, and this time, all 48 of them will be on the track at the same time.
“Definitely a lot more components come into play at regionals than at Stanford,” Stafford said. “At Stanford, you zone out and clock in lap after lap. You definitely have to be paying a little more attention to what’s going on around you. It will be three-lanes wide at some point, I’m sure. The times at Stanford don’t lie. They were a few weeks ago, and we know we’re ready.”
The truth is where the three of us are at, if we go out and have a good day, we’re right in that mix.Sarah Carter
In a lot of events, you can look at a sheet and get a good glimpse of what the competition is and where they stand. But in a race of this distance, Carter – who holds the school records in the 5K indoors and outdoors, as well as the 3K indoors – would rather ignore them.
They mean little the way she sees it. One, because of how long ago they were set. Two, because the factors that day will be different than on Thursday at 10:10 p.m. (MT) when the triumvirate of Rams line up for the start.
“You just have to focus on your position the entire time and be ready to counter moves versus just thinking about maintaining a certain pace,” she said. “It’s tricky because since most people set their regional times early in the season, they could be exactly where they were then, they could be faster or way off. You can’t think about individual people as much as you think where I am within the group and am I ready to counter any moves any person in the field of 48 are going to make.”
The race becomes very much a feel thing with multiple layers. The first, and more important, is with the individual runner and what they’re feeling at the time. All three of the ran the race at the Mountain West Championships, with Carter and Stafford going 1-2, Tomasula-Martin fifth.
Each one of them also has to read the field. Not just in a given moment, but throughout, and factor where they are at that time. A group may make a move to the front early, but it is too soon? And how many of them are eventually going to fall back?
“I think it depends person to person how they want to run it. I think there’s a lot more incentive to be closer to the front than when you’re running for time,” Tomasula-Martin said. “It doesn’t necessarily matter where you are position-wise. It’s checking in with yourself and checking in with your coach. The level of awareness is less on paces but how many people are in front of me, or does it look like it’s going to pick up. You have to be pretty in tune with what’s happening in the race versus when you’re running for time and you’re more in tune with yourself and what’s going on for you personally.”
All feel they are in a good spot going into the race. Really, that’s all that matters, as they can’t control how the other runners are going to attack the race. They have to find where they sit, run a race that’s comfortable for them and be ready to strike.
It makes it an interesting race for Hart, who will watch all three of them run from different perspectives. What would be a troubling sign for one would be seen as a positive for another.
“It's definitely an exercise in concentration and individualizing things. I know Annabel will be out toward the back and that’s not a stressful thing,” she said. “Sarah, it’s get up there, so it’s kind of knowing when in the race things get more urgent. Lily runs more up front, too.
“I love coaching the 10K because there’s so much time to make changes. They can hear you and change and listen to feedback.”
There are times in the race they can all help each other, but Stafford said the biggest comfort comes from just knowing her teammates are in the field. And while she said she’ll “zone out” for at least of few of her laps to keep her pace, a move one of them may make may “wake” her up and alert her to follow suit.
None of them are seeded to advance to nationals, but that doesn’t matter to any of them, who all view the race and the opportunity as wide open – the field from No. 1 to No. 48 is separated by 2 minutes. They are one of only two teams with three runners seeded in the top 23 (where Tomasula-Martin is; Stafford is 15, Carter 16); the other is New Mexico, with three runners seeded in the top eight.
Since Stanford, they’ve trusted each other in training to have each other ready. On that particular Thursday night, that will carry then only so far. At some point, they’ll all sense the time they have to make a move for themselves.
“You really have to trust your training and your fitness. The truth is where the three of us are at, if we go out and have a good day, we’re right in that mix,” Carter said. “There are people who got there and had the best day of their season, and some are going to have the worst day. You can’t control what that’s going to be for them; they’re going to do what they’re going to do. We just have to trust all the work we’ve been putting in since Stanford and where that puts us going into this race and be able to engage with it, no matter what happens.”
When to engage is the only time they know that matters. The night is all about finding their place, preferably in the top quarter of the field.