Geez Louise! I am ecstatic! On
Sunday I ran a 22 second PR at the Stanford Payton Jordan Invitational in the
steeplechase for a time of 9:29.18.
Coming into the race I felt certain my legs were PR ready, but I was not
as certain about my head. As I said in
my last post, it has been a tough month.
Thankfully, I was able to let the pressure, sadness, and hurt go and
instead just had fun racing.
I knew the field was very deep and
included four 2012 steeplechase Olympians (Coburn: USA, LaCaze: Australia,
Ramos: Puerto Rico, Figuerca: Columbia) among other very talented women, so I
knew I should not get out too fast. Coburn
took off at the gun, as I stayed in the front end of the chase pack. My dad was giving me splits at the 200m mark
on the track, so I knew I was on pace to hit low- to mid-9:40’s through the
first few laps. I could not believe how
strong I was feeling at that pace, so with 3 and a half laps to go, I went to
the front of the chase pack and picked it up.
Each lap I was able to close the gap a bit on Coburn until I had almost
caught her the last 200m. However, the
announcer did a good job reporting my progress, and she was able to surge ahead
and win.
I feel so lucky to have the
opportunity to chase my running dreams.
I was sick the last two years of college (depression followed by mono) and
did not perform well. After college I took
a few months off of competitive training to let myself heal. After a training road trip through Colorado
and New Mexico, I fell in love with running again, and knew I wanted to see
what I could do. I contacted Dennis
Barker and Pat Goodwin, the coach and the president of Team USA Minnesota. I knew it was unlikely they would let me on
the team. I had run a 10:11 steeple in
college, but that was not close to what Emily Brown, the other steepler on the
team run. Also it had been a good couple
years since I had run anywhere close to that.
But they took a chance on me, and I am so grateful.
Right now I am so joyful I have had
the opportunity to run, and I am so thankful it all came together for a big PR
Sunday evening.
Race:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/250668-Payton-Jordan-Invitational-2013/video/707767-W-3K-Semi-Final
Results:
http://www.gostanford.com/sports/c-track/stats/2012-2013/compiled_res
Interview:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/250668-Payton-Jordan-Invitational-2013/video/707806-Emma-Coburn-and-Jamie-Cheever-run-1-and-2-in-world-for-Steeple-at-2013-Payton-Jordan
Down the Backstretch Interview:
http://downthebackstretch.blogspot.com/2013/04/jamie-cheever-shifts-her-goals-for-2013.html
Southwest Write-up:
http://www.flotrack.org/coverage/250668-Payton-Jordan-Invitational-2013/video/707767-W-3K-Semi-Final
Results:
http://www.gostanford.com/sports/c-track/stats/2012-2013/compiled_res