While the bulk of the attention was on Galen Rupp and his sub-3:50 attempt this past Saturday in Boston, there were quite a few runners lining up on the track quietly going about their business. Pat Fullerton (aka @fullatweets) is one of those guys. I saw this tweet from him and decided to reach out to find out more:
816. No galen rupp, but ill take a 8 second pr #oldmanhaswheels
— Pat Fullerton (@fullatweets) January 27, 2013
Questions I had: What were you expecting to run? How much of an impact did watching Rupp’s race have on you? At the end of the day, what’s going to be more important, watching Rupp run well or nailing your own race? Maybe some people can handle both, but the more intense competitors might opt to not even be a part of the circus surrounding Rupp. There’s no wrong answer there. You have to do what’s necessary to accomplish your goals.
Here’s what Fullatweets had to say:
I seeded myself actually at 810 but the goal was to run around 815. I had run 825 at the second BU Mini Meet but that was my first ever 3k. So to run 816 in my second 3k and still basically having no idea how to really run it because I have run so many 800′s, 1000′s, and miles before was awesome. I closed in 29.xx so I know that there’s a few more seconds that I could have shaved off. It was also huge because for the first time since college, I felt like I reached a goal. Last year I wanted to run 345 in the 1500 and i ran 348, which is still fast, but it was the first time in 9 years of running I didn’t PR in a mile. I’m excited now because I’m going into the BU Valentine hoping to break my indoor mile of 409.1 and going into outdoor my confidence is sky high and positive knowing I can run faster than I did last year when I focus on a mile/1500!
As for Galen Rupp, I didn’t watch it knowing that it would mess with my head just because of how ridiculous it was going to be. So I arrived at 5 and treated it like a business trip and it worked.
Basically I have had lofty expectations since I left college (ran 347 for the 1500) and I think now my fitness is finally where I had hoped it would be and I’m working 40 hours a week at GBRC which has also helped because Tom and Eric have really got me even more motivated. Eric (McDonald of UMass Lowell) and I have had a friendly rivalry to see who can run faster and it was awesome to see him run 814. Hopefully we will get a chance to race each other in the same heat soon because both of us are in similiar shape.
We’re looking forward to a head-to-head showdown between Fullerton and McDonald.