I haven't had the most ideal last few days, but I headed down to the Shoreline stadium for the first of the All Comers meets. It was awesome. My stomach and groin have been in increasing pain, so I took last Saturday and Sunday off, then Monday night ended up having to pull an all nighter for school. With this in mind, I had readjusted expectations for this meet.
I raced the mile first. I was hoping to hit 800 in 2:07-2:08 and then hold on for a pr. One of my old WWU teammates took it out hard from the gun as he was looking for a 4:15, so I sat just a little back of him. 63 first lap. He had a 5 meter gap on me which he kept through lap 2. 2:08 -- we slowed a little, but that was okay. I was still feeling pretty good. The far side of the next lap things started to get fuzzy, and the edges of my vision were doing funny things. With 500 to go I pulled up on Dylan's shoulder and decided he was fading and it was time to move. I took the lead, reached 1200m in 3:13, and I focused on getting my legs moving faster. I quickened my cadence and tried to dig, but I was tightening up quickly. My head was going back and my neck and arms and everything was locking up. There was no kick left. I entered the final straight and just kept pushing. 4:19.5 official time. That was the most painful race I've run in awhile. 63, 65, 65, 65ish for splits. Pretty much the same result as UW a couple weeks ago.
I had a 20 minute break and then ran the 800 for a bit of extra work. Considering how bad I tightened in the mile I expected it to feel awful from the first step. I jogged around for the 20 minutes to try to get the blood to clear out my legs, but it didn't feel like enough. We lined up, the gun went off and the field quickly left me in the dust. I ran 61 for the first lap, and I felt surprisingly fine. The next 200 was fine. 600 in and I wasn't tightening. I reached the final straight and managed the kick that was missing in the mile, and I crossed the line unofficially in 2:03. That's a pr, pending official ratification. Considering I wasn't pushing 100%, I think I could actually break 2:00 if I gave it a good shot.
We also ran the 4x400 5 minutes later, just for a little more work. Didn't want to kill it, so I just split a 60 and called it a night. Also felt surprisingly okay considering.
Honestly, I'm baffled at how badly I tightened in the mile compared to how good I felt in the 800. I realize 2:03 is not a blazing time, but hey, it is a pr, and I feel like I should have been feeling more acid effects. But oh well I'm not complaining. Just surprised.
Really fun night. I wasn't planning to do the next All Comers next week, but I think it's a must.
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