MileSplit.us recently caught up with Pat Schellberg, Delbarton NJ, to discuss his recent success on the indoor oval. Schellberg won the Millrose mile, running away from the field, with a time of 4:14.84. More recently, he won his group championship 1600 meter championship with a very even paced 4:10.48. He will be running the 1600 at the NJ MOC this coming weekend.
MileSplit.us: You have had quite the indoor season so far. A Boston Holiday mile win, a Millrose Trials mile win, the Millrose mile victory of course, and now a 4:10.48 1600. Is indoor a major focus for you, or is all of this success coming as you are preparing for outdoors?
Pat Schellberg: Indoor is definitely a big focus for me, as I raced a lot for my team and in preparation for Millrose, which was a huge goal for me personally this winter. I do treat it as another season, but at the same time, I have used most of my races so far as workouts and have been on higher mileage, around 40-45 a week, than I have been on in the past.
MileSplit.us: In prior mile victories you have worked off of a slow pace and kicked hard toward the end of races. At the group champs you took the race from the gun with scary-even pacing that you maintained through the entire race. Have you always had a sense of pacing? How did you feel at that pace?
Pat Schellberg: It was my plan to take it out fast and see what I could do off of a pretty quick pace. I really wanted to test myself and see how fast I could run. I knew I had a good sense of pace, as I've have run some races with more even splits than that this year. I split 1:54 awhile ago with all of my laps at 28.5ish. I felt comfortable at the pace, despite how quick it was. It felt really relaxed and I felt I had a gear or two left in the tank.
MileSplit.us: How much faster do you think you can go over the mile distance?
Pat Schellberg: To be honest and without trying to sound cocky, I feel I can run a lot faster than I did Friday night right now if I get in the right race. I havent really been pushed by anyone in the last 600-800 of a mile race this year, besides at BIG. I feel so much more fit and stronger this year than I've ever been before.
MileSplit.us: Which national meet are you going to? What goals have you set for yourself?
Pat Schellberg: I am not running a national meet because I've raced a lot this winter. I am ending my season after the MOC on Saturday and will take a little break.
MileSplit.us: You ran the 55 hurdles at the NJCTC champs. Was that for fun or was there a training component for the mile in there somewhere?
Pat Schellberg: Haha no, my coach gave my twin brother, Matt, my name for the race by mistake. I can't even get over the lowest hurdle. (Editor's note: we have since corrected the error in the database :-)
MileSplit.us: Did you expect this success in the mile indoors or has it come as a surprise? Have you changed what you feel is possible for you outdoors?
Pat Schellberg: I did and I didn't at the same time. Based on my cross country season and outdoor track season last year, I knew I had the potential to run some pretty fast times and meet my goals this indoor season. My goals were to run my PR in the 1600 from last spring, 4:10, in the winter and win Millrose. However, I never thought I would be running this fast so many times this early in the season and be able to run these times so comfortably and relaxed.
MileSplit.us: You've caught the attention of a lot of people over the last month. Who in the track community has reached out to you? What advice and encouragement have you received?
Pat Schellberg: A lot of people from New Jersey have reached out to me both before and after Millrose. One man, Mr. O'Leary, talked to me prior to Millrose and just told me how to run on the Garden. He told me a lot of things about the meet and the track that I really tried to follow and definitely helped me have such a great race on that day. People have just told me to stay confident when things don't go your way, stay relaxed, and keep having fun out there. Having fun is one thing I really try to do in every meet, because when you are pressure-free, big times are more common to occur.
