Last weekend was the big indoor meet in Winston-Salem, NC. A great turn out of around 1000 athletes made for some very solid competition and a lot of new world records. I competed for the SoCal track team and we did not win the team competition this meet, as we did in Spokane. Our group was down several competitors due to injuries and various other reason. We had a very small group, but we did manage to score fourth in the team competition and score a lot of gold medals int he process. I already blogged about the people in the meet and this entry will be basically the nuts of bolts of the competition for me.
I am 62 this year and right in the middle of my age group and I signed up for the 60, 200, 400 and High Jump and also competed in 2 relays--4 x 200 and 4 x 400.
I did not make the 60 finals and ran 7 th in the 400. I ran pretty good in the 400--65.65-- but did not really seem to have any real juice at the end of the 2 laps and faded a bit at the end for 7th.. According to National Rankings for Masters the 60 is 21th quick in the US this season and the 400 is 9th quick in the US this season.
Pretty decent speeds, but all the fast folks were at this event. The other events I did score points and they are infinity more interesting to discuss. So we move on .....
I high jumped and scored a 6th with a jump of 1.43 meters. The competition was world class and I got beat by 0.25 meters!! The 1.43 meters is 12th best in the US this season and is also All-American Award eligible. I felt pretty good, but this was the big boys in this event--they only jump and do nothing else.
I had not run the 4 x 200 meter relay until this meet. One lap of crazy and let the next guy gets a lap. Rather simple, but very exciting. Our relay team was in the 60-64 group with my age as the group we were entered. The other three were over 65, our group was a little older, but that did not deter our efforts. The heat we were in had 6 teams, so the 6 lane track was full and were in lane one. That is the tightest turn, BUT, in this race it is a three turn stagger with the lead off staying in the lane and the second leg blending after the first turn was complete. I this sort of race you really want lane one or two so the blending is to your advantage. I was the second runner and really really wanted the lead going into the blend line. If you are going to win this thing, that is the way to get it done. David Craig ran the first leg and we had a very good hand off. We had been in on a bunch of relays together and we are getting used to the hand offs with each other. When I received the baton, it was dead even with 3 or 4 other teams. I knew I had one more stagger to my advantage and absolutely crushed the first turn and came out on the blend line in the lead and absolutely sprinted away with a 10 meter lead at the next transfer. Since we were leading, we had lane 1 and Nolan Shaheed took a great handoff and left the entire crowd and it was basically over. Another helpful racing incident was runner in lane 2 fell at the handoff and this really allowed us to gap the field and win it by a couple of seconds. Great racing and some smart racing on our part got us the gold!! We ran a 2:00.38.
The next day I ran the 200, we had 4 heats for 6 spots! Each heat winner and the 2 quickest other times to transfer to the finals that afternoon. I was in with the winner of the 60 meters and knew that winning the heat would be tough and I needed to have a quick lap. I ran really hard in lane 5 and finished in second in the heat in 28.81 and transferred on time. I knew I had to really get on it hard and go to the whip. In the finals, my time was a little slower at 29.01 and that was a solid fourth place. I used up way too much in the qualifier and I knew it, but you gotta get in the show! The 28.81 is 9th ranked in the US thus far this season. It was good racing, I just need a little more top end speed to hang with this crowd.
The final events, as always, is the 4 x 400 relay. I have been running this since 1973 and just love it. Many times it will decide the meet winner and it is always challenge to summon the energy for one more 400 meter. Our group was the same first three from the 4 x 200, but for anchor we had added 73 year old Gary Patton. Gary is a middle distance champ and holds the world record in the Indoors 1 mile in the 70-74 age group. He is quite fast and I was glad to have him on anchor. David Craig led off and I was second leg and was basically trying to find the competition for the first lap of my leg. I handed to Nolan (800 specialist) and he started to lap the second and third place teams. There was 5 teams on the track and three in our age bracket--mine. Gary just finished it up for a 45 second win and another gold. That gold was my fourth straight in this event!! 2 outdoors and 2 indoors in succession. That is pretty cool to have won four straight. That is a big deal to me and I would love to continue that string in Iowa this summer.
At the end of the meet, we were waiting on the 30 minute waiting period to end for any protests to be lodged on the results and then we could receive our gold medals for the 4 x 400 and head out for the day. Surprise! they ran out of gold medals and I will wait on my second gold medal to arrive via the mail. That kinda killed some of the joy, but we still hugged and cried like the rest of the competitors.
I had a pretty solid meet and came through with nothing more that a sore right ankle and knee and it has to be from that laps I did in lane one on the track. I tried to run today--5 days rest- and it is still a bit early to do anything hard. I have started weight training and will try more running next week if my joints are in agreement.
Since I am moving up in my age bracket and the new speed arrives daily, I am seriously looking at taking up the hurdles--short and long. I have a couple months before I race again and I am going to work on hurdle technique and see what happens. In the Outdoor Nationals, they run a mixed gender hurdle relay ( I think) and that would be too much fun and would be a pure team event. I enjoy the team stuff and it is another way to get the team title secured.
see you on the track!
I am 62 this year and right in the middle of my age group and I signed up for the 60, 200, 400 and High Jump and also competed in 2 relays--4 x 200 and 4 x 400.
I did not make the 60 finals and ran 7 th in the 400. I ran pretty good in the 400--65.65-- but did not really seem to have any real juice at the end of the 2 laps and faded a bit at the end for 7th.. According to National Rankings for Masters the 60 is 21th quick in the US this season and the 400 is 9th quick in the US this season.Pretty decent speeds, but all the fast folks were at this event. The other events I did score points and they are infinity more interesting to discuss. So we move on .....
I high jumped and scored a 6th with a jump of 1.43 meters. The competition was world class and I got beat by 0.25 meters!! The 1.43 meters is 12th best in the US this season and is also All-American Award eligible. I felt pretty good, but this was the big boys in this event--they only jump and do nothing else.
I had not run the 4 x 200 meter relay until this meet. One lap of crazy and let the next guy gets a lap. Rather simple, but very exciting. Our relay team was in the 60-64 group with my age as the group we were entered. The other three were over 65, our group was a little older, but that did not deter our efforts. The heat we were in had 6 teams, so the 6 lane track was full and were in lane one. That is the tightest turn, BUT, in this race it is a three turn stagger with the lead off staying in the lane and the second leg blending after the first turn was complete. I this sort of race you really want lane one or two so the blending is to your advantage. I was the second runner and really really wanted the lead going into the blend line. If you are going to win this thing, that is the way to get it done. David Craig ran the first leg and we had a very good hand off. We had been in on a bunch of relays together and we are getting used to the hand offs with each other. When I received the baton, it was dead even with 3 or 4 other teams. I knew I had one more stagger to my advantage and absolutely crushed the first turn and came out on the blend line in the lead and absolutely sprinted away with a 10 meter lead at the next transfer. Since we were leading, we had lane 1 and Nolan Shaheed took a great handoff and left the entire crowd and it was basically over. Another helpful racing incident was runner in lane 2 fell at the handoff and this really allowed us to gap the field and win it by a couple of seconds. Great racing and some smart racing on our part got us the gold!! We ran a 2:00.38. The next day I ran the 200, we had 4 heats for 6 spots! Each heat winner and the 2 quickest other times to transfer to the finals that afternoon. I was in with the winner of the 60 meters and knew that winning the heat would be tough and I needed to have a quick lap. I ran really hard in lane 5 and finished in second in the heat in 28.81 and transferred on time. I knew I had to really get on it hard and go to the whip. In the finals, my time was a little slower at 29.01 and that was a solid fourth place. I used up way too much in the qualifier and I knew it, but you gotta get in the show! The 28.81 is 9th ranked in the US thus far this season. It was good racing, I just need a little more top end speed to hang with this crowd.
 |
| 4 x 400 Gold |
At the end of the meet, we were waiting on the 30 minute waiting period to end for any protests to be lodged on the results and then we could receive our gold medals for the 4 x 400 and head out for the day. Surprise! they ran out of gold medals and I will wait on my second gold medal to arrive via the mail. That kinda killed some of the joy, but we still hugged and cried like the rest of the competitors.
I had a pretty solid meet and came through with nothing more that a sore right ankle and knee and it has to be from that laps I did in lane one on the track. I tried to run today--5 days rest- and it is still a bit early to do anything hard. I have started weight training and will try more running next week if my joints are in agreement.
Since I am moving up in my age bracket and the new speed arrives daily, I am seriously looking at taking up the hurdles--short and long. I have a couple months before I race again and I am going to work on hurdle technique and see what happens. In the Outdoor Nationals, they run a mixed gender hurdle relay ( I think) and that would be too much fun and would be a pure team event. I enjoy the team stuff and it is another way to get the team title secured.
see you on the track!
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