whats the best way to race an 8k?

To race it as hard as you can.

Treat it like a five mile race and you won't go far wrong.

Try to go out about 10 seconds slower than your 5k pace for the first mile and then try to hold it. It took me nearly half of the season to get used to the transition from the 5k to 8k. Good luck.

just run the first one and figure it out for yourself like the rest of us did.

that's what your coach is for. ask him. every race is different, and can have different goals. Does your team need you to finish in the top 7, and do you need to beat another team for rankings? Questions like that must be answered before the race, and can help you develop a strategy.

one good goal to have: try to be where you want to finish (top 10, top 50, etc) by the half-way point.

I think you should start by not being such a big twat, and then you should run it as fast as you can hold on to.

Run the fastest pace you can hold for about 5 miles.

what school you going to?

Two suggestions... Either of which are perfectly acceptable. Fast or like a boss... You chose.

Go out conservative. Consider, say, a 15:30 guy who likes to go out in 4:45 - that sort of shenanigans causes more and more trouble the longer the race gets.

run 10k pace and pick people off the last 2 miles?

Mile 1: Slow

Mile 2: Build

Mile 3-5: Pick it Up to 5K Pace

Start out fast, push through the middle stages, and finish strong.

The easy way to pace your self is pick someone on your team that is perhaps slightly faster than you but not going to crush you. Preferably someone who has raced before in college. Then just try to hang on to him. An 8k always seems intimidating when you have never really raced over 5k but the training you should be doing in college will get you ready for it. You will be surprised at how good you feel going the extra distance.

Try to stay with the kenyans. You will die after 3 miles but you'll still PR by 20 seconds.

At least thats what I did.