This meet was the first of a series of all-comers track meets that a local running store is sponsoring this summer, and I decided to try the 400m since I am not feeling up to a competitive mile yet. I rushed across town from DS#2's soccer tryouts and arrived at the track with what I thought was 20 minutes to spare. Instead I found out that the 400m started in five minutes. Barely enough time to pay the $5 fee, pin on a number, say hi to MarkGuy, and slip into my PF-defying lightweight racing flats. My warmup consisted of one hurried lap around the track with a couple of striders, and about one minute of stretching.
The starter lined up the motley crew of entrants. In lane 1: some college-age ringer. Lane 2: MarkGuy. Lane 3: me. And that was it. Mark-set-go and we were off. I went flying out of there, but Lane 1 made up the stagger before we hit the backstretch. At 200m I was probably around 29s, but I was already tightening up and knew I couldn't hold that pace. Tried to keep my arms driving forward and my legs under me up the home stretch, saw the digital clock at the finish hit 60s, and finished in 61s, a full 10s behind the winner. Still an age-graded result of 77%, a standard I have never been able to reach in 5k and longer races.
There was more competition in the mile. The winner was a masters-age runner who ran 5:09. Looking forward to having it out with him next month.
I'll let MarkGuy tell his story. Here we are afterwards. Onward to the 4x400m relay in August. Thanks for reading!
DaveinAA, MarkGuy
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DaveinAA[/URL" target="_blank">
http://This message has been edited by DaveinAA (edited Jun-16-2007).
The starter lined up the motley crew of entrants. In lane 1: some college-age ringer. Lane 2: MarkGuy. Lane 3: me. And that was it. Mark-set-go and we were off. I went flying out of there, but Lane 1 made up the stagger before we hit the backstretch. At 200m I was probably around 29s, but I was already tightening up and knew I couldn't hold that pace. Tried to keep my arms driving forward and my legs under me up the home stretch, saw the digital clock at the finish hit 60s, and finished in 61s, a full 10s behind the winner. Still an age-graded result of 77%, a standard I have never been able to reach in 5k and longer races.
There was more competition in the mile. The winner was a masters-age runner who ran 5:09. Looking forward to having it out with him next month.
I'll let MarkGuy tell his story. Here we are afterwards. Onward to the 4x400m relay in August. Thanks for reading!
DaveinAA, MarkGuy
------------------
DaveinAA[/URL" target="_blank">
http://This message has been edited by DaveinAA (edited Jun-16-2007).
What fun!
