Story
I went to Endicott today to run my last track race(s) of the summer at a Triple Cities Runners Club meet. I planned on racing the mile and then running the 2 mile as a tempo run. I warmed up for 8 laps to pad my lead in the most runs category and then changed into my spikes. As I was doing my warm up strides it started raining hard. Everyone was completely soaked by the time the race started.
The race went off and I soon found myself alone in 2nd place. There was so much water on the 2nd curve that I could feel it resisting my toes just a bit as I was picking my feet up. On subsequent laps I ran out to lane 2 to avoid it. Maybe that helped, maybe it didn’t. The race progressed uneventfully and I finished in about 4:55 (I will double-check once official results are posted). The rain cleared up as the race was ending and we were all rewarded with a rainbow.
A few minutes after I finished I felt good so I decided to run each of the next three races as workouts. (No sign ups are required for this meet, you just get a bib and race whatever you want to.) Next up was the 800. I ran a little faster than 5k pace and finished (in 1st place) in 2:37. I got about 7 minutes of rest before the next race which was 400 meters. I should have walked a lap in between to finish another 1600 but I didn’t think of it. My “workout” 400 turned into a race and I ended up running about 1:03 to win.
About six minutes later was the 2-mile race. I figured that I would run something under 12:00 (tempo pace) and maybe get a little competitive at the end. I lapped my watch after the first 18 meters as we crossed the finish line to get some 1600 splits. It looked like my tempo pace would put me in 3rd place. I clocked 5:49 for the first 1600. I felt good and noticed that 2nd place wasn’t too far ahead so I picked up the pace enough to close the gap over the next 3 laps. By lap 7 the leader was fading and the race for 2nd became a race for the win. With 200 meters to go I kicked home for the win in about 11:23 (2nd 1600 in 5:29). Where were those gears when I needed them in my last 5k race?
I wrapped up my evening with an 8-lap cool down. I think I ran a decent mile given the conditions and I was able to run some quality reps in the other races. That’s a good day at the track!
