What is your "breakthrough race" story?

Steeplechase senior year in college. First meet of the season I ran a 12-15 second pr and made the provisional time, D2. I was coming off a so-so cross country season where I finally had a good race the last race of the year and an ok indoor track season. Being the steeple chase we never ran the whole race in practice so it was a nice surprise. I ran the same time generally the rest of the year winning some races etc but was possibly not going to make it to nationals because of the times ahead of mine. Overheard some teammates talking and a few were worried I wouldn’t make it. One said maybe I didn’t deserve it since I hadn’t improved all year. So in the last meet of the year I wrote my splits down on my arm and had a buddy stand at the starting point of the steeple chase, 7 1/2 lap race. I hit them and finished strong to bring my time down 4 seconds and qualified for nationals. Thanks for doing that Mike. I cruised through the prelim feeling what it was like to shut it down the last 150 meters and save some for the final auto qualifying in second. In the final I ran a grueling race making my way back up from last at the first barrier to 8th overall and earning D2 All-American with a six second PR. It was a great way to go out. Thanks for reading and if one of my teammates reads this and knows who this is respond with the name of our college.

There used to be a ten mile race in Stockton in the '70s-'80s that awarded special sub 60 shirts to everyone under an hour. (Sub 70 shirts for the women and sub 50 for the elites). The race was held in early January and usually the PA-TAC ten mile championships. It attracted a high quality field. Four of us trained for two months as if it were a marathon. I was a mediocre runner (mid 36 minute 10K's) so a sub 6 minute pace for ten miles was very challenging for me. Running with a friend we hit 5 miles in 29:35 and I felt like I was done. I told my friend, Jimmy, I was done and he said, "Come on man, you know it wasn't going to be easy." I decided I would maintain a sub 6 minute pace for as long as I could, even if it meant slowing to a crawl the last few miles. Jimmy pulled me from 5 to 7 miles and for the only time in my life I actually felt stronger the last few miles. I pulled Jimmy through the last two miles and we crossed in 59:28.

When I was 6th in the AAAs.

It was the first time I ran a national championship on the track and I also ran a PB which broke every goal I had set for myself. It was the first time I had run in a televised track meeting I think as well. My coach took me there and without him I would not have been able to get there.

I don't know if I've ever been as nervous for a race as I was on that day. I just felt if I didn't do well I would be letting him down.

Local Turkey trot 5k, 2017. I knew it was going to be tough to hit a PR because I had not run in 3 weeks due to an extra cold and rainy November. I was struggling big time half way through when a milf passed me with a double jogging stroller and said 'nice job keep it up!'. At that point I said 'aww hell no' and latched on and drafted off her for the next mile. I started to lose contact but mustered a heroic kick in the last 0.1 blowing past the milf and securing a PR.

Trained hard over the summer and dropped my half marathon PB from 1:17:56 to 1:11:05. Illusions of ‘becoming a runner and making the trials’ until reality set in.

4:28 miler in high school. Came into college and had a horrible cross season and a mediocre indoor season, ended up running 4:23 indoors. My first shot at the mile outdoors I just popped off and ran 4:15 closing in 61. All in all, great feeling. Haven't really run faster since though lol, still working on that.

Man... to this day I still can’t believe I did this. My first year of college I ran 27:12 for 8k, on a pretty easy flat course. It was an all out effort - I could give nothing more.

5 years later, I happened to run on the same course for one of my last collegiate races, I ran 23:59 with a final mile of 4:34.

The majority of my success was running high mileage consistently (90-100 every week) and being part of a squad that supports you no matter what. Did a lot of pool work, 1 hour swim AM, 1 hour swim PM too. I hated it but my coach said it would make me so much better. Did altitude training in the summer every year.

And today, I am now joining my first professional group in Oregon.

In high school, I was an 800 guy, through and through. 1:54 PR, a decent mile (4:21) and surprisingly solid cross, but my 3200 and 5000 on the track were just awful (barely sub-10:00, not even sub-16:00). Once I got to college, I tried to still be an 800 man, and I was just not doing well. My 1500 was still alright, and so was cross, so my coach decided to put me in a 3k my sophomore year. I went in with zero expectation, and a 9:50s 3200 for my best race at a similar distance. I came out an 8:40 3k guy, and dominated the field with a 63 last 400. A week later I hit my first mile PR since high school and spend the rest of the season PR'ing every single race, and I attribute it entirely to my massive improvement at the 3k.

This summer I really grinded, I went to altitude (albeit only for a month) and hit my highest mileage ever and averaged 100 + for 10 or so weeks. I came into the cross season (lucky to even have one this year) and rand a 75 sec cross PR for 5k and an outright 15 sec PR even on the track on a relatively hilly (but with good traction) course.