The time is 1996, it’s my freshman year of High school and I
had just been cut from the Freshmen basketball team. I had dream most of childhood of playing
basketball, but I guess I should have seen this coming when twice during
the first week’s scrimmage the coach had to blow the whistle and stop play
because my glasses fell on the court.
When the coach told me, I was being cut he told me I was “The Wrong Height”
I was 5’11 and probably the 2nd tallest kid I sort of got the
hint. That winter I was playing pickup
football with my friends, when my childhood friend was blowing past me all game
and catching bombs. He trash talked me
as kids do that he was in shape because he ran XC that fall and that I should
try it but I couldn’t beat him. That
spring I decided to get into shape so I decided to try out for track, I did
some research about Olympic events and decided I wanted to be a Pole Vaulter
and Javelin thrower, the Head Coach took one look at me and said “Distance
Runner”. I was not a natural, I remember
cutting runs, skipping practice, and not doing workouts my freshman year. Distance running was not for me. 22 years later (with an 8-year hiatus) here I
am still doing it, running times I couldn’t have ever imagined for a kid who
cut a 3 mile run down to 1 constantly freshmen year.
This weekend started with a rabbit Team Dinner Friday night
where I met teammates that I have shared a journey with on social media for 6
months now, into a rabbit shake-out run on Saturday morning. Meeting up with my sister, my friend Mary, her
husband Jon and my good pal AnnMarie on Saturday after hitting the expo, we enjoyed a low-key dinner together.
Never have I felt more at peace before a race then hanging out in my Airbnb
doing dinner together just talking about life and everything with these lovely
people. Find yourself someone who keeps
you calm before a race AND NEVER LET THEM GO.
I went to bed that night, excited and ready for whatever the day would bring. A 4:30am Uber ride(not used to this city life) with Mary got us to the buses
early and off we went. Only our bus got
lost, ended up in the wrong area and had some fun encounters with volunteers to
figure out where we were supposed to be and a local hero on the bus got us back on
track. As I said earlier, having a calm
at peace person like Mary with you race morning and nothing can worry you. We shared some laughs and warmed up together
before we said our goodbyes and off to the corrals we went. I was probably 1000 runners back when the gun
went off, can’t say I’ve started that far back in a while, it took me 9 seconds
to get to the starting line but off I went, CIM was here.
I read my Puppy Unicorn race day email from Coach David many
times that week, it is not filled with paces, or race plans or any of
that. It is filled with everything a
runner needs to be calm, to enjoy the process, to enjoy this day and to make
sure we have clean narratives in our mind of what’s coming. I was mentally ready and off I went. I went out calm”ish” I was sort of blowing
past runners but I was pretty far back.
The funny thing is I may have been 3000 miles from home but I can’t say
I have ever known more runners in a race in my life. Between Instagram, local running friends,
rabbit or SWAP teammates for the first 2 miles every time I passed someone I
was like “Hey What’s up!”. About 2 miles
in I rolled into rabbitElite teammate Michele who said she wanted to run
2:35(haha), I wanted to go out a little slower so I just tucked in with her at
2 and ran into Sean O’Leary for about the 5th different race this
year. We keep finding each other out
there. So the three of us were running
together I was making some jokes I found funny, doubtful they were. We had a good laugh when Michele had her
first ever water bottle pickup from a fluid table dropped it and it rolled a
good 10 meters from her. About 6 miles
in I looked back and saw we were now not 3 of us but a pack of about 35 runners
we were leading down the street, where did everyone come from? Why was I doing all the work? Was that Wayne in front of us? Onward we went.
It was Wayne in front us, my old co-worker who I spent 2
years training with but has since moved. Honestly I had to
sound like such a dork as I screamed, WAYNE BLAS at mile 7 of a marathon around
a bunch of very quiet determined runners.
We caught up a bit as we kept rolling on with this ever growing
pack. We were not running 2:35 pace but
probably closer to 2:30 pace. At this
point I was vested so I smiled and kept on rolling. Around mile 9, I just got going a little bit
up a hill and then next thing I noticed I had broken off from the pack and off
I went feeling fabulous. In my mind I
thought I could go anywhere from 2:26 to 2:31 on this day depending on any
number of factors. So as I started
rolling and I clicked off back to back 5:20 miles and was feeling great, by mile 11
I rolled up alongside Steph Bruce and Sara Crouch and another woman runner who
were in 2,3,4. Gave them a great job as
I had every other runner I passed and kept rolling ahead. I was feeling great, and now in a great rhythm
clicking off 5:35’s to 5:40’s while basically dominating the USATF TV coverage haha. I have received many photos and messages
about too much Nick Klastava on the woman’s feed (like there could ever be too
much of me). Up to the half we went and
1:14:25 was on the clock. Welp never
been here before, but that’s fine.
At the half you are basically on a REALLY long stretch of
road you can see in front of you, so at this point I just sort of got in the
best consistent pace I could and took as much energy as I could from the crowd every
time I could. The paces were coming
naturally and these were numbers I’m not really used to, 5:35, 5:37, 5:41, 5:40
split after split of perfection. Earlier
this year these were 10k, 10 mile splits I ran not Miles 14-18 of a
Marathon. My friend Alex who was
absolutely amazing and I saw probably 10-15 times on the course had some
excellent cheers including my all-time favorite “Your Doing it Nick!”. I was doing it, still on 2:28 pace, sub 2:30
it was all there for the taking. Let’s
talk fueling for a second, I went against the number 1 rule and changed my fuel
on race day to Maurten’s gels. Let me
tell you I hands down made the absolute right call. Not only did it taste a million times better,
was it so much easier on my stomach but every time I took one it hit me right
away. I managed to get 3 of them in by
mile 13 but, I also only brought 3 (idiot) so at mile 18 when I needed more
fuel I took out a Gu. I have taken them
many times before but it didn’t sit well this late in a race, probably mixing
didn’t help either. I wish I had 1-2
more Maurten’s with me but I won’t make that mistake next time.
I rolled up to 20 and made runner mistake #1 at this point
in a race. I did some quick math and
said, As long as I don’t start running these splits you got it in the bag. I hit 20 in 1:53:40(never EVER been here
before, not even in this stratosphere).
So quick math 36:19 10k and I’m golden, as long as I don’t start seeing
any 6’s I’m good. Why do we do this as
runners, for 20 miles I was smiling, not aware of pace I was on or splits
really, just cruising but at 20 I fell back to old ways and give myself a
mental out. Mile 21 my pace dropped to
5:46 no big deal let’s just keep that but then I started to slow and by 21.5 I
was down to over 6:00 pace. This was
happening fast, what was going on we got to snap out of this. Then I head some cheering Come on Steph, yup
I knew what that meant. I’ve written a
long IG post about it so check that out if you want more dets here but needless to when one of my
running idols passes you at mile 21.5 you go with her. For 1 mile side by side we ran, all the
cheers I have once received were replaced with Go Steph, but I just enjoyed
them like they were my own. Honestly one
of the coolest moments of my running career next to sharing the last 10 miles
of a race gone terrible bad with a friend at JFK50.
By about 22.5 after a 5:40 mile with Steph I started feeling like I
might throw up, I had to slow down.
Steph continued on and I took advantage to just keep her from getting
too far away to pull me along for 1 more mile, 5:50 as she was gone. I was slowing but I might still get this, at
least I had fought off the 6’s.
From about mile 21 on you enter the “Streets of Sacramento”
which basically means if you look at the street signs they count down from 57th
street to 17th with many named streets in the middle to annoy
you. I was in hell, sign after sign
telling me I had so many blocks to go.
Mile 25 became the struggle, my hamstring which was tight all race was
now not cooperating, my stride had been shorten and I was struggling. I finished mile 25 and it was my first mile
over 6:00, I looked at the clock and did some math and realized my goal of sub
2:30 was now gone unless I pulled out a 5:15 or something (nope not
happening). I had noticed something else
interesting my friend Alex who had been cheering me all race, was also there to
cheer his girlfriend Michele. Well as
the later miles went on I had been noticing he was cheering me and then on his
bike quicker and quicker and I didn’t take notice until Mile 25 when he
basically cheered me and I saw him on his bike seconds later. Before I could put 2 and 2 together boom
there went Michele still not run 2:35 pace.
I gave a cheer and tried to summon any strength I could to go with her
and help her catch 3rd place but not today. This mile lasted forever, I was moving best I
could I knew 2:30:XX was still possible and that’s a goal let’s do it. As I rolled around the last turn I saw the
big clock and saw if I kicked in to sub 2:31, or officially 2:30:47. Woof that hurt, I saw some local area friends
post-race as my friend Dickson had crushed a 12 year old PR. Post-race my amazing sister was there which
was awesome to see her.
As I stumbled around post-race, I ran into so many friends,
I got interviewed by the local news where I proceeded to spell my name on
camera as NICHLOAS ALASTAVA, Marathon brain is real folks. I found Mary who had run 2:48, also a 7
minute PR and was delirious because she basically ran 26.2 miles on 2 shot
blocks(no not packs, just 2 shot blocks).
But she crushed it anyway. I ran
into some rabbit PRO and Elite teammates, found out Brogan from rabbit won the
whole race, my friends Curly and Jarret had both run OTQ’s, I was so excited to
see my friend Ryan Miller who has twice been within 20 seconds of an OTQ breakthrough
and run 2:14. The rabbitElite ladies absolutely crushed it, Michele had placed 4th overall and
ran an 11 minute PR and holds the 12th fastest time on the qualified
Olympic trials list, is 25 years old and you know #notsponsored. My friend Allison Cleaver (drop the Mendez)
crushed Anotha One and ran 2:36 for the A standard while my friend AnnMarie
also ran a 7 minute PR (man do a group dinner together and we all run 7 minute
PR’s) for 2:37. Local friends who I have
run into every race this fall Julia ran 2:36 also while at like 100 years old
Jason ran 2:42 very close to his PR. The rest of the day consisted of me
getting to hang out with some elites at the post race party when my first
Melissa (also huge 10 minute PR snagging that OTQ) snuck me in, and then I spent the night celebrating everyone’s amazing results.
What a journey, 1 month ago, I was a 1:13 marathoner who has
spent much of 2018 putting tons of pressure on himself with every race and
running much much slower as the year dragged on. I was feeling
the need to BE ELITE, instead of just being the runner David had taught me to
be. I went into Richmond thinking if I
ran my PR I would be ok and then maybe 2:35 at CIM would be good. My 1:11 there and now 2:30 here has still
completely shocked me. I never ever
thought I’d be here. 70-minute half,
2:30 full, these are barriers I dreamed impossible 8 years ago when I started
running again. I thought I lost my
chance after taking 8 years off, that I would just settle for being an older
runner who missed his glory years. Now,
I believe none of that. I believe my
best is yet to come, I believe 2019 I am going to scare myself even with the
times I am going to run, or to quote Nike “Don’t ask if your dreams are crazy,
ask if they’re crazy enough”. I spent an
entire weekend being around rabbit professional and elite teammates believing
in me and telling me what they think I can run.
I met Matt Llano and his parents at BWI who asked me “You going after an
OTQ? We think you should”. So what’s next for me? I’m not sure, nothing is set in stone
yet. I know in 2019 I’ll be 37, I’ll
have my second daughter on the way in January and I am dreaming bigger than I
ever once imagined. But what I know is
having rabbit, SWAP and the amazing Baltimore running community by my side I have never felt more loved and supported in
my entire life. There is absolutely no
one telling me what I can’t do, just telling me to believe in myself. Everything about this weekend was amazing
from start to finish. I met friends for
the first time, I met and ran with running hero’s, I saw local runners many
miles away and shared an amazing weekend with rabbit and friends and
family. This is what running and the
running community is all about, and if 2019 continues like this I will continue
to be blessed.
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