Indoors in Wisconsin

A couple weeks ago I scheduled a little racing in Racine, Wisconsin at Carthage University field house.  Wisconsin USATF was having an all comers meet and I wanted a final tune up before the USATF Nationals in early March to test my training and get in some live racing. 

Linda and I were originally going to fly into Milwaukee on Friday and race on Sunday and fly home on the Monday morning direct flight.   On Saturday we would visit our grand daughter  and on Sunday watch the Super Bowl with the newlyweds in Milwaukee.   A few days before we were going to leave, Linda had an opportunity to baby sit our grand daughter for the following  week and she decided to take Betty and Linsi up on that offer to watch June all week.    We changed our plans around and drove to Milwaukee instead and Linda would have a vehicle all week to get around.  When we left Nashville it was a nice winter day of 50 degrees and pleasant and just a few hours North it was a very cold wind and we nearly froze getting our first tank of gas!   We had to harden up pretty quick on that trip to survive. I do not miss that nasty crap!!

The racing was very interesting to say the least.    I ran the 55m, 200 meters and high jumped.

  I was trying to get in a 400, but the meet was too compressed on time and there was little  rest time for that monster and I skipped it again.  I had signed up as Jackie Allen--Male-- and they had in the with the women for the races!  I checked the heat sheet after the 55m to see what was going on with the heats and I was in with the Women.  I do not mind running against women, it is actually fun for  me--but they really struggle to keep up and it makes for lousy racing.   When they called for the  55m race, I was still finishing up some high jump attempts and arrived a little late and basically just jumped into the blocks and looked over at two women also getting into their blocks--OK, but a little unusual.   I got a great start ( after the first attempt was a false start) and finished in 8.25 , which is 4 th quick in the world currently.  It was a great pass.   I never saw the women.   My daughter Betty and her wife Linsi made the meet and did some videos and also took some great photos at the meet.

200 m start

In the 200, we had three people in the heat.  A women whom had just run a 68 second 400 M was in lane 6 and I was in lane 4.  Another gentlemen--much older-- was in lane 2 and he was not not going to come into the race mix for us.   This race should be a lot more competitive due the proven speed of the woman outside of me.  We both used blocks and around 80 meters I could see her tire just a bit and I knew that 400 was taking a toll, it had only been 30 minutes tops since she ran.

  Seeing the weakness, I really accelerated into and thru the corner and won by a couple seconds.  The time was slight improvement from Winston-Salem, 29.12 seconds.   I felt strong and finished hard.   I  just need to get out a little quicker to get the time into the 27 and 28's.    My training is coming along and I will continue to work on a March 1 peak.

After the meet,  Betty and Linsi took me to breakfast (we finished around 10:30) at a place called Frank's Diner in Racine.

   The place was jammed and you queued up along the wall for the next seat available.  The place is an old portable diner and had about 16 counter seats and a later addition provided 6 or 8 tables for 4 people each.   We waited about 20 minutes for a table and had a wonderful breakfast of  comfort food.  Frank's slogan is "Order want you want, eat what you get" and the place was hopping.   I just love this joints.  We were finishing up around noon and a waitress with a tray of tequila shots asked if we wanted a shot. Well, heck yea!  Not everyday you get shots with brunch in a diner.   She said they do it every Saturday and Sunday as a tradition and Betty and I took a shot to share with the entire diner as a group.  If you go to Racine--go to Frank's.  It is open for breakfast and lunch and it is just a lot of fun to get fed there. Be hungry, it is a massive plate of food.

That night we got to hang with Audra and Adam and watch the absolute snoozer Super Bowl and the next morning I was flying home and Linda was headed for June's house to hang with the nearly two year grand daughter. Jammed packed weekend in Wisconsin was over.  That afternoon I flew onto Tulsa and worked the week and flew back to Milwaukee to return to Nashville with Linda.  I was in three time zones in one day with the jet and car rides. I was pretty tired the next day to say the least.

I have been doing my big training sessions this week and I am feeling pretty good about my progress.  This is the last hard week and next week I will coast into the meet in Winston-Salem fully charged and ready to race.