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Despite the fact that my car broke down in Greensboro on the way back to Asheville last weekend and I stayed in a hotel overnight until my car could be fixed the next day, I woke up early Sunday morning to make it back to Raleigh for the 5k Run for the Roses race. Around 500 people were in the competition which I ended up placing 43rd in. You can see the results here if you are curious but I can summarize by saying my time was 20:46. That’s my “chiptime” which means that it’s the exact time from when the electronic chip attached to my shoe started and crossed the finish line. The ranking goes by the guntime which is the actual start of the race which explains the discrepancy between my two times as a I started towards the back of the pack. Next time I’ll make a point to start towards the front of the pack so I don’t have to wait to cross the start line and I’ll place better.

I wore a watch and timed myself for each mile to see what my times were: About 6:20 for the first mile, 6:30 for the second mile, and roughly 7:10 for the last mile (then add some time for the last .1 mile). Sooo, not so good at pacing myself. Felt really great after the first mile, still felt good after the second mile, then the third mile obliterated me, laying the hurt hold down strong for the last 5ish minutes. The last couple minutes I figured I had just pushed myself too hard the first 2 miles and had thoughts of just crumpling on the side of the street or walking for a bit. But alas, things turned out well, I pushed through and felt fine 5 minutes after it was all over. I’m pretty pleased with my time and glad that I have something to compare now and see my progress.

More about a Summer internship:

On the Summer internship battlefront things have been busy. Last week was the career fair here which is kind of like Disney World in the sense that there are long lines and lots of smiles but way less fun because your ride only consists of talking to a company representative for 90 seconds or so. 30 minutes for IBM, 30 minutes for Microsoft, 75 minutes for GE. I ended up talking to and giving out resumes to about 25ish companies. I had 3 interviews the day after as a result of all this and have a couple more coming up. I’ll highlight them briefly so it’s more interesting to see where I actually end up this summer.

Harris - Interview went: Really well. Have never laughed more in an interview, we got along well. The job would be in Rochester, NY and I would be involved with low level radio communication technology for the US Army.
Merck - Interview went: Pretty well. They asked me tougher questions then most companies have asked me. I believe this would be in New Jersey, close to NYC. They are a pharmaceutical company and were quite vague as to the nature of my work.

Cisco - Interview went: Really, really well. I felt great about this interview as she didn’t ask me any technical questions (other people were apparently asked them, depending on your GPA etc) and kept talking about how self-motivation is important and they are looking, not for networking specialists, but for people with a well rounded technical background. Great. I’m your man. Hire me! The internship would be in San Jose, California. They should get back to me by next Friday.

IBM - Interview on Tuesday.

Milliken & Company - Interview on Tuesday.

And there are other companies I’ve applied to positions for but haven’t heard back yet about interviews.

Tomorrow morning I’ll wake up at 4:30 am for the Cycling race here. Sunday I’ll be up around 5:30 am. Excitinggg, although if last week’s practice criterion race is any indicator (which it is) I won’t do well this weekend.

And the week in training:

6 – Swimming – 1800 yards – 600 yard ODS warmup, 6×100 with 30 s rest (note: couldn’t make it all the way through. Stopped after 200 yards, rested, then did the last 400), 600 yard ODS cooldown.

7 – Biking – Went out and did the practice criterion race with the cycling club. Competed with the Ds and barely held on the entire time, was pretty rough. About a 20.5 mph average for 25 minutes.

8,9 - Rest – Shipwrecked in Greensboro/rest for tomorrows race

10 – Running – 3.1 miles. 6:46 min/mile. Raced in my first 5k today, the Run for the Roses. Got 43^rd out of about 500 people with a time of 20:47.

11 – Swimming – 1800 yards - 600 yard ODS warmup, 6×100 with 45 s rest, 600 yard ODS cooldown.

11 – Biking – 75 minutes – Intervals on the trainer.

12 – Running – 9.5 miles. 80 minutes. Met up with Will from the Tri club and ran around campus for 80 minutes which comes out to around 9.5 miles. Felt really good about this run, a lot better than my 9 mile run in Umstead park last week. It’s a good sign for my endurance but it’s also a sign that Umstead’s hills were rougher than I gave them credit for.

13 – Swimming – 1800 yards - 600 yard ODS, 100, 6×100 with 30 s rest, 100 sprint, 400 ODS. 100 time during the set: Consistently 2:20. Slowww. But that’s okay, I couldn’t even get through this workout last week. 100 time during the sprint: 1:43.

14 – Biking - 30 minutes – Trainer. Right before running.

14 – Running – 4 miles. Tempo run. 8×800 meters at a 5:30s mile pace with 400 walking recovery between. Felt really, really great about this. I think these interval runs are going to be important for increasing my 5k time. Was with Alex and Will from the tri club who were good motivation. Hauled ass on the last 2. The last one I ran the half mile (800 meters) in 2:18. Biked 30 minutes right before I did it as well. Going to start setting up more bricks where I bike->run to get a better feel for it.

15 - Rest – Rest before races tomorrow.