USATF Nationals Baton Rouge

A couple months (or years) ago I wrote a blog about "How Big is Your Stage?" and last weekend it was pretty darn big.  That blog was basically yelling at my kids to challenge themselves and see how they do when they near the top of their professions.  They have done well and I guess I also heeded my own advice as well.   How big was the stage this last week--the biggest one in the USA for Masters Track athletes and I would like to think I held my own.  

The Nationals is a 4 day meet and I was entered in the 100, 200 , 400 meters and the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays.   If things went well I would race 8 races.   Prelims and finals of the 1,2 and 4 and each relay would be a final.  That is a lot of racing anyway you cut it.  It ended up with only 7 races needed and I was really glad to miss the one we did not have to race. 

Day 1--My first race was the 400 prelim and I just needed to run about a 64 or 65 to make the finals the next day.  The only problem was the weather.  The meet officials were using the local track standards for weather and any lightning in the area would result in a minimum 30 minute delay.  Our race was supposed to run at 3:00 and at 6:00 we were still waiting on weather clearance.  At that point the meet officials decided to run the heats in the indoor field house on the 200 meter track.  Fine with me, I wanted to eat.  I was starved and with the unknown start times I was not getting anything more than a few dried fruit pieces to slake the hunger. I did share a banana with Howard Clark, who was in the same starving boat with me.   Finally we got our heat in around 7:00 PM and it was time to eat.  I was pretty starved.  I headed aback to the hotel with my roomie--Charlie Powell and we ate like starved men right across the street from the hotel.  I was fourth or fifth quick in the prelim. 

Day 2-I had two races on Day 2, 100 prelims and 400 finals.   We ran the 100 first and I made the finals easily and actually cruised a bit in my heat race.   It felt good to relax at the end and I needed all my energy for the 400 final in a couple of hours.   The weather relented and we were on time for the 400 meters.  I was in lane 6.  After a good start I had a problem at the end of the first turn at the 100 meter mark.  My left calf had a major cramp and I nearly collapsed on the track!  I kept on the throttle and after a couple strides the pain left--I am not sure  how--but I finished in fourth.  I had missed a medal by about 0.2 seconds with a time of 61.89.  I ran a 61.0 in 2010 and this time was quickest since then.  I ran a great time and felt pretty good at the finish.  Now, what about this calf deal??   I was not sure if it was an Achilles or just the calf.   At that point I could not run slowly or jog at all without major pain.   I headed back to the hotel and had dinner and then iced the calf for several hours.  What about tomorrow? 

This sign at the Atlanta Track Club answered my question.........

Day 3--Now I have two races and a really unhappy calf muscle and walking was a challenge at this point.   In the morning, I visited the So Cal team massage therapist and had him flush out the calf and  try and get it to work a little better.  Then it was more ice until race time.  I could not really warm up much because my stride was a mess.  I stretched the best I could and put on two layers of compression and added some KT tape and limped out to the blocks in the warm up area to give it a shot.   I got into the blocks as normal, moved them back a couple inches to flatten out my position and hit the gas.  I came out as I would in a race and just let it rip.  I had good speed and I knew at that point I could race.  It was now just a battle above the shoulders to perform.  My stride was good enough to go!!  I think at this point I had done some pretty good injury management.  I ran fifth in the 100 and held off sixth by 0.001 seconds. That is really an eyelash.

100 Meters finish

I watched the replay and I have no idea how I beat him, but the lean job worked.  The calf held up, but walking was still not very good and we had a 200 meters prelim in 2 hours.  Shit--another race today.   The weather moved in again and we were forced to retreat to the comfort of the indoor track.  After a major thrash our 200 prelim was rolled over and we only needed a finals--no prelims needed!  Whew!  They ran indoors again and I went back to the room for more calf icing.   Linda was coming into town that night and she would be able to make it feel better--I was hoping.  Also Rosemary was driving in and she would arrive too late to do any massage work.    Linda and I had a nice dinner and to bed early. 



 

Hand off to David- leg 2.



 

Charlie Powell, David Craig, Larry Isler and me.  Double Gold medal winners!!

Day 4--  Three races today.  The warm up area was full of limpers and you could smell the camphor everywhere.  Everyone was dinged and that is just the was it is in track and field for antiques. No sense me whining about my leg, nobody could hear a word I was uttering. I warmed up with a really bad limp and stretched out the best I could.  I was still good at speed, but jogging and slow running was not possible.  I was OK at speed, just deal with it.  I ran a good race in the 200 with a time on par with the fastest this season.  I made it through OK with two relays to go,.   Rosemary worked on my calf for about an hour between races and she helped, it was loose but hurt like hell. I would lead off the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 with the same group from So Cal.  I was the young guy at 60, and the others were all in the 65 year age group.   I ran a very nice lead off for each and we were in the Gold for both races.  Finally a gold medal at Nationals--who would have thunk it??   Competition?  Oh, we were unopposed in each because of my age. I was the only 60 year old on the track for the relays.  I will take it after the beating my calf had to tolerate. Relays are the final events and by then everybody is just trashed.

The meet is a lot of really fast people meeting to get in some great racing and I enjoyed the event with them.   I am committing to running the indoor and outdoor Nationals next year and I am going to work on going to Spain for the outdoor international meet next September-2018. I am done for this season, unless you count the NSGA District qualifier.   I am going to take at least a month to get this calf  healed and then start playing with my high jumping.   I have been trying to retire from the 400, but my performance in Baton Rouge shows just how competitive I really am.  Even at the big big stage, I can still get it done and I am too good to walk away now.

More track stuff in another day or two.