I don't know how many of you watched the race, but the men's 5k was the most exciting distance race of the night by far.
I thought that Sambu was announced as the pacemaker, but he ran the first 200 in like... 28 seconds with a huge gap on the field. He went through 400 in 60, the field 4-5 seconds back. After another lap or two the field caught up with him, but seemed indifferent about staying on his heels as the gap opened up again.
David Torrence was tucked in around 5th place for most of the race. Obviously as Cal grad I was cheering for him.
I lost track of laps, but although we thought Sambu was announced as the pacemaker, I started thinking that he was looking strong and running to finish the race, and commented to my friend that I didn't think he was going to drop out. Then they announced they had just passed the 4k mark, and I was sure of it. I thought he had a good chance of holding on to win at that point too.
One lap to go and the field began to speed up, they had a real chance to catch Sambu (still two seconds in front of the field at this point, but tiring) and David Torrence began moving to the front. His kick began in earnest with somewhere around 300m left just as they caught Sambu, absolutely flying down the back stretch with a small gap on the field. With 200m to go we thought he had a real chance to win and we were screaming at him as he came around the final corner in the lead, but Shadrack had covered the move and Torrence was tiring. On the home stretch Shadrack moved strongly into the lead, and as Torrence faded he was passed by Andrew Butchart as well (who actually ran a slower final lap but hit the bell about a second earlier than Torrence). Absolutely thrilling race and fantastic running by everyone, especially the top 5 finishers who really put on a show.
It was great to be there in person with good friends.