MoCoRunning






Ricky Flynn at Duke Invitational
By: Kevin Milsted
Saturday, April 07, 2007
webmaster@mocorunning.com

Mocorunning catches up with Ricky Flynn, former cross country state champion from Damascus High School now in his sophomore year at Lynchburg College in Virginia. Flynn qualified for nationals in cross country his freshman year, but has been bothered by injuries since then. This weekend, he qualified provisionally for nationals in the 5k with a personal best time of 14:40.

MoCoRunning: How's it going Ricky? Are all of the injury problems cleared up now?

Flynn: It's going pretty well. For the most part all of the injuries are cleared up except for a little shin pain, but nothing to worry about I hope.

MoCoRunning: Congratulations on running 14:40 and provisionally qualifying for NCAA's this weekend. What was that race like for you? How did you feel and how did it unfold?

Flynn: The race was great. I went into it off a pretty rough week of workouts just hoping to PR or provo and I felt good at the gun and just went with it. I was really nervous goin into it because I was the only DIII guy in my heat and because of all the elite runners in my heat, including a bunch of Kenyans. I just tried to go in confident and forget about the past few days and just go for it.

So I came through the 800 around 2:17ish and 4:35 for a mile, which was a little faster than me and my coach planned but I was just running with the flow. Then I came through the 3k in 8:43, which is a pr, then the 3200 in 9:19, another pr, and once I saw those times I thought I was gonna be hurtin. But I just hung on as long as I could and with 2 laps to go I realized what I could run and I gave it everything I had with two cramps. Then with one lap to go I heard my coach say if I can give him a sub-70, I got nationals. At this point I was feelin it and that 200 was probably the slowest of the race but then I said to myself, "200 meters to go, this is it, no turning back" and I kicked in as hard as I could. I crossed the line at 14:40.

MoCoRunning: Sounds amazing. What was it like just being at a huge invitational like that? Was it a grand experience or just another race to you?

Flynn: Well we went to this meet last year, so it was kind of like another race for me, but it was a little different being in the fastest heat.

MoCoRunning: Do you know what place you got?

Flynn: Overall I think somewhere around 27th

MoCoRunning: So what are you looking for the rest of this season?

Flynn: I'm gonna take it easy for a few days to get rid of this annoyin shin pain, and then go from there. I hopefully will get into nationals with this time but if I have to run a faster one then I will be lookin at last chance meets and/or Penn Relays if I can get in.

MoCoRunning: Ok, I hope you make it, too. We will be following you. Good luck.

Flynn: Alright, thanks a lot






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