NIKE OUTDOOR NATIONALS-DAY ONE

Nike Outdoor Nationals- Day One

Schedule

8pm: 5000

Women’s 5000:

Lauren Bishop (Pinecrest)

Men’s 5000:

Zach Brantley (Northern Nash)

Dillon Hawley (Nash Central)

Dakota Peachee (West Johnston)

Tonight begins Nike Outdoor Nationals, we at NCRunners will be on hand for all three days. For the first day brings a unique event that’s not run that much during track season but plenty of times in cross, the 5000. North Carolina has four athletes competing tonight, and we believe that the weather should be a comfort to them (although the dry air isn't helping). Seeing that Dillon and Zach ran the 5k at the Milesplit gala in times of 16:03 for Zach and 16:10 for Dillon, and that Dakota ran a 4:01 1500 in the 100+ degree weather the cooler temperatures should be a welcomed relief. We at NCRunners were thinking that we might provide some analysis on this event, when you break it down it’s 12.5 laps you’ve got to stay focused on every single lap, but the more we thought about it, the more we thought why don’t we try and find someone who competed in this event and have them offer some analysis.

We shot an email over to one of our old runners, Jonathan Sunde, and he was kind enough to give some insight. Last year Jonathan competed in the 5000 at NON and ran a 15:27, he just finished his first year at Clemson University having a successful cross country and track season. He talked about the event and how it can help out runners looking to make the adjustment to college running:

 

 

 

“most runners in high school don't really see the merit in running a 5k on the track, they see it as the long cross country race and prefer the 3200, 1600, or even 800 during track season. What a lot of people don't see is that if you want to go to the next level with running maybe the 5k on the track in high school would be something to try out more because it's a short event in college… the main point I'm trying to get at is that the future of running for a high school hopeful is most likely in higher distances, so why not get a head start and train for those and race those longer distances."

 

 

Jonathan Sunde, 2007 NON 5000 participant

A complete recap of the meet will be posted later tonight...stay tuned for updates.