Efraimson catches fire with 4:07.05 1,500
By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor
Alexa Efraimson said in a Saturday night interview that she "died" in the final 100 meters of the adidas Grand Prix women's 1,500 in New York City and she believes that she can go even faster.
Efraimson, fresh out of her junior year at Camas High School in Washington, ran 4:07.05 on Saturday and went toe-to-toe with some of the best female milers in the world.
ADIDAS GRAND PRIX HS PHOTO GALLERY (by John Nepolitan)
The spectacle of watching an American high school girls compete with and defeat seasoned pros used to belong exclusively to Mary Cain, who became the track and field story of the year in 2013 during her march to the World Championships finals.
Now, Efraimson is doing it, too. At the bell, she was at 3:02 and the world champion Abeba Aregawi and U.S. star Jenny Simpson were just a few second ahead. She was still charging with 400 to go and 300 to go and began to tie up coming off the final turn.
"I know I died in that last 100," she said. "It was a struggle for me to finish the race. I'm pretty sure my form started to fall apart and I started to lean forward."
Even if her form did begin to unravel a bit, and she got passed a couple times and slipped to 10th, the overall result is another feather in the cap of a new wave of U.S. high school phenoms.
"I am really proud (of the time)," Efraimson said. "I still think of this as a step. I still think I can better myself off (this result). This is the first race (of the year) to have really great competition and I'm really happy with it."
Efraimson carries motivational words on the back of her calf in every race – tailored somewhat to her current goal – and this time it spelled out: "I'm building a fire and every day I train I add more fuel. At just the right moment, I light the match."
On Saturday, Efraimson lit the match.
"I think I did," she said. "I mean, a few months ago we started to get into the really tough workouts and all those workouts got me to this point."
Even when she ran a U.S. high school record in the 1,600 meters at the Washington state meet two weeks ago, her feeling was that her race performance was behind the quality of her workouts.
Only Cain, among high school preps, has ever run faster for 1,500 (4:04.62 and 4:05.21). Efraimson's performance is the third-fastest behind those two Cain runs last summer in Moscow.
Efraimson admitted to some nerves before stepping to the line at Icahn Stadium Saturday.
"I told myself that honestly there's nothing I can lose from this experience," she said.
And the value and growth that came from running with faster women – something that Efraimson actually had to fight for to get a rule changed with her state association – was worth it.
"Just being able to experience a race with all of these professsionals and the focus and tactics in the race, having that opportunity, it's something I could not get anywhere (else)," she said.
That opportunity arose 10 days ago, when she was offered a chance to swtich from the high school Dream Mile to the professional women's 1,500. She seized it.
Next up is the PR Invitational in the Seattle area on June 21, and an 800 meters that could go extremely fast. Raevyn Rogers of Texas is expected to be in that field as well.
