Former Haybaler Amanda Boyd competes in her first outdoor 5,000
meters at Stanford invite
Palo Alto
Amanda Boyd admits she’s a little hard on herself.
The former San Benito Haybaler ran her first outdoor 5,000 meter race at the Stanford University Invitational in Palo Alto on Saturday, and took approximately 36 seconds off her previous best time, which was recorded at an indoor meet during the winter.
Competing as a freshman for Northern Arizona University, Boyd clocked 16:58.55 over 12-and-a-half laps at Stanford’s Cobb Track and Angell Field and finished ninth in Heat 3.
With a 16:52 as the qualifying mark for regionals, Boyd sits just six seconds off despite only one race under her belt.
“I’m a little bit frustrated, but I’m not disappointed at all,” Boyd said after her race Saturday night. “It was a good stepping stone.”
The 2006 SBHS graduate is coming off a stomach flu and a 102-degree fever two weeks ago, which forced her to sit out a small meet at Arizona State in Tempe.
But Boyd returned to her home state, where temperatures dipped into the high 40’s Saturday, to shed plenty of time off her 17:34.28, which she recorded at the Big Sky Indoor Championships on March 1.
That time placed her second in the conference, and allowed her to compete at Stanford last weekend.
“It’s just a completely different atmosphere,” said Boyd of the outdoor race. “I’m gonna run the 5K again. Now that I have that under my belt, I know I can do it.”
Although she’s looking to take, at the very least, six seconds off her time in order to qualify for regionals, Boyd said now is not the time to be peaking, as the Stanford invite was essentially NAU’s first track meet of the season.
“I know where I messed up at and I know what I gotta do,” said Boyd, who said that she felt tired with one mile left in the race. “[Six seconds] is definitely doable.”
Boyd will get another shot when she competes at the Mt. SAC invitational in Walnut in two weeks.
“You come here and you want to get it right off the bat,” said Boyd of qualifying for regionals. “I’m too hard on myself sometimes.”
