Nathan Armstrong set out on a quest for a gutsy 5km Double within a 5-hour time span.
The day started at 9:00 am with Armstrong winning the North Jersey Championships comfortably by 24 secs, in a season's best time - 16:21 on the Garrett Mountain Cross Country course, helping his team Pompton Lakes to a 3rd place team finish, qualifying them for the Championship finale.
Armstrong would come back in the afternoon to strategically race to another season's best on the track at the GSTC Fall HS Showcase Quantine Games 5km, Armstrong crossed the line 11th with a time of 15:31.
Armstrong’s father Terrance Armstrong said, “Given the early morning Cross Country race fatigue in his legs, on the drive down we figured that a sub-16 would be a comfortable target to shoot for & put a solid 5km track result on paper.
The plan was to run 5mins/mile (3:07 per km) pace thru the first 2km - 3km, he got stuck in that rhythm and held pace, clicking off 75's the whole race, finishing his last 200m in 31 seconds, with the last 400 clocked in 67 seconds.
Pure determination at its best.”
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