Catching up with California's Dmitry Kislyuk

Here is short interview with California's Dmitry Kislyuk, which took place the week following the Stanford Invitational. Kislyuk finished 5th last year at the NCS Division I cross country meet and is the third fastest runner returning from the same meet. He also ran 4:22.82 in the 1600 at the NCS Meet of Champions at Berkeley. Here is Dmitry's reflection of his 4th place finish in the Stanford Division I race.

1) What was your plan going into the race?
My goal was to break 16:00, and because this was my first time racing Stanford, I just wanted to stay with the lead pack and run my best. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but when the race went off the field moved fast so I did run hard.

2) Did you have a goal in terms of time and/or finishing place?
See above.

3) Did you hear your splits during the race?
I think I came through the one mile at 4:45-4:50 pace, which was a bit fast, but realistically the 1st mile is always a bit quicker.

4) The Division I race was incredibly crowded with 344 finishers. What was the race like during the beginning of the race? How long before the field stretched out?
I was lucky to get a good start, didn't get boxed in, and I spent the first mile really moving up to the top 4 pack. After that, the positions stayed the same throughout the race, and I focused on keeping my form and staying with the leaders.

5) How did you feel about your race once you were done?
It was a good effort, a 5k P.R., and I was happy to break 16:00. I was disappointed with my kick, since the battle between 2nd, 3rd, and 4th was really close, but I'm still happy about my time. It was also good to see that fellow NCS runners James Attarian, Nate Beach, and Matt Duffy did very well in their respective races.

6) What are your next races (league and invitational)?
We had our EBAL Center Meet today, which went very well for me. Other then that, we have more league meets, followed by league championships.

Thanks so much for this blog, keep up the awesome work! I'd love to see something similar for track & field.
- Dmitry Kislyuk

Thank you very much for your time Dmitry! AJC