“So you can see why we’d be a little surprised now,” Sparks said. Seidel was outkicked in the 10K at her conference meet. The NCAA final was the third time she had ever raced 10,000m. In high school, Seidel was the 2011 Foot Locker champion, but her first two years at Notre Dame were pockmarked by a succession of injury and illnesses, and only in the past year has she been able to return to consistent training. “Interval training hasn’t really panned out for her.” “She thrives on tempo and threshold type of work,” he said. He has had Seidel on 70 to 90 miles per week, with long runs of 15 to 16 miles and a steady diet of 5- to 6-mile tempo runs, on whatever surface the South Bend, Indiana, winters allow: roads, indoor track, even the treadmill. “Running scared is the best way to run sometimes,” said her coach, Matt Sparks, who is in his first year coaching the men’s and women’s distance runners at Notre Dame. Seidel thought Scott and others were right on her tail, and she didn’t dare a look at the screen to confirm her position. Truth be told, I was kind of like, ‘Eff it, I’m going.’” “I had caught up to Bates, and she was fading back. “I wasn’t really thinking at that point,” Seidel said. And the effort cost her-Seidel caught up as they approached two laps to go and went quickly past Bates in a move that was not premeditated. She ran too fast, splitting 66.4 for the lap. “With four laps to go, I was going to make a move and run 68 for that first quarter of a mile.”īates, who ended up finishing in 10th place, didn’t exactly follow her coach’s instructions. “My coach and I decided that was the best way to go,” Bates said. The race didn’t break open until lap 22, when Bates surged. The race went out slow, as runners battled brisk winds down the backstretch and the field covered the first 5,000m in 16:49. “If you had told me this morning that I was going to be the 10K champion, I probably would not have believed you.” “This is a pretty big shock,” Seidel said after the race. With the win, Seidel surprised her competitors, her coach, and, she admitted, herself. Play icon The triangle icon that indicates to play
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