(05-17-2021, 09:28 AM)BobK Wrote: Haymach’s win in the 5 K maybe the most surprising championship win in my 61 years of being a track nut
I didn't even know who she was until the announcers called out her name. Interestingly, she had just finished 2nd in the 800 only 70 minutes earlier (in an impressive PR of 2:02.91).
Bob or any racing fan should re-watch the entire race and focus on Heymach. For the first 6:00 of the race, you can hardly even find her, as she is among the last 4-5 in a large pack, way way off the pace. Only in the second half of the race can you occasionally find her long black pony tail at the very end of the main pack. The main pack periodically drops a runner but no matter who gets dropped, Heymach is always at the end of the pack. She looks as if she is just fighting to hold on -- and her bizarre, high wrist arm carriage makes her running look awkward and unconvincing.
Halfway through the race, Heymach is 15th, just hanging on to the back of the first pack. About 10:30 in (all these times are race clock times, not the timing on the video) the main pack separates into two packs and Heymach is 2nd to last in the 2nd pack, 12th overall and it looks as if the first pack of 6 will decide the race. Fortunately for Heymach, the first pack slows down and the second pack catches back up. You can finally see Heymach in the main pack camera shot at 11:07 in 9th -- her first time in the top ten in the entire race. Now we can finally see her for the first time other than when the camera pans to the whole field.
At 11:22, Heymach pulls out into lane two and makes her first move. This is the first indication that she may have some race in her and she eases into 8th. There is a glitch in the video and when the picture returns at 12:54, Heymach is 6th and Baez from Oregon, who apparently does not have much of a kick, takes off and tries to drop the field. Heymach waits about 10 seconds then decides to follow with the ease of a well-rested 800m runner and to everyone's surprise (including hers, I'm guessing), nobody else goes with her. At this point, there is about 2:30 left in the race. Heymach pauses briefly when she comes up to the 2nd and 3rd runners, then decides to go for it. Heymach closes the gap to Baez fairly easily and stops just behind her. Here it is worth pointing out that just as they are coming up on the 2nd to last lap, Heymach steals a glance to her left and cracks a small smile (note that she never smiles anywhere else in the race, even after winning, hugging with teammates, etc.) presumably acknowledging the encouragement of a coach or teammate.
Baez pushes the 2nd to last lap as hard as she can and Heymach follows, while everyone else falls back. With one lap to go (the 5000 finish is opposite the main finish line), Heymach picks up the pace and just crushes Baez with her 800m speed, picking up 6 seconds on the last lap, winning by almost half a straightaway.
If you didn't know that she had just finished second in the 800m finals 70 mins before this race and had never run a 5K on the track before, her initial race strategy of laying back might look insane, but she probably treated the first few minutes as a recovery run, then as she warmed up, started to feel out what she had in the tank. I haven't found a post-race interview, but I'm guessing she was surprised by how much strength she had left in the last 1-2K.
Great race and shocking result.
