When Reed Kamyszek and Joseph Whelan line up for a race, it’s usually outside. The two cross country runners have the liberty of dictating their own pace as they navigate the distance race’s 8-km course.

But this weekend, at the Valentine Invitational in Boston, Kamyszek and Whelan will have to sprint.

As members of the indoor track and field team, the two distance runners will compete in the 3K race. It’s a distance much shorter than they’re used to, but one they are ready for as they make the transition from cross country, to the indoor and ultimately outdoor season.

The 3K is a 3,000-meter race slightly shorter than two miles. For the two distance runners, though, it’s a relative sprint forcing them to utilize a different kind of speed and strategy.

“Sometimes in the 5K you have people sitting around waiting, but the 3K is right out the door,” Kamyszek said, “and once a mile hits, you either have to hold on or, if you have something left in the tank, you burn it up through the last three laps.”

Some indoor 3Ks are run in 10 laps on 300-meter courses. The course at the Track and Tennis Center at Boston University is 200 meters, making the race 15 laps. Some runners like to divide the race up into three parts of five laps each, or two parts of eight and seven laps, Kamyszek said.

In easing the transition from the outdoor terrain of cross country to the banked course of indoor track, he likes to split the race in half.

“I like to look at it in the mile way,” Kamyszek said. “Once you get done with eight (laps), then from there you kind of visualize, ‘I only have a full mile to go, but not quite,’ and you just got to keep pushing at that point.”

While Kamyszek relies on some simple math and speed to get him through the race, Whelan relies on his experience.

Unlike Kamyszek, who will be running in his first 3K of the season this weekend, Whelan ran the 3K at the Penn State Invitational on Jan. 25, and finished 10th in 8:18.08.

Whelan, also a fourth-place finisher at the Big East cross country championship in October, knows how to bring his game in indoors.

“Having the shorter distances is just something you have to get used to, and the only way you get better at it is by doing it a bunch,” Whelan said. “Just being a little older and knowing how to handle each meet helps a lot.”

Head coach Chris Fox is looking for a sharper distance performance than the one he saw at the Penn State Invitational, he said. But ahead of the Big East Indoor Championships next weekend, Fox expects “good things” from Kamyszek and Whelan in this final tune-up.

Fox is looking for Kamyszek to run any time under 8:20 while the runner is aiming for any time below 8:16.

Said Kamyszek: “It’s hard to pin it down, but whatever people open up the race at, I am probably going to follow them.”

 

Published on February 7, 2013 at 12:32 am

Contact Bryan: bwrubin@syr.edu