Last Hurrah

Track season is well underway down here in Southern California, and putting aside from job hunting, thesis, classes, and my research institute job, I try to find that calm bliss embodied in track spikes and lactic acid. It's not as twisted as it sounds.

I'm excited. The season has been opened pretty well. I opened up my season with an 800m down in UCSD in a 1:56, going 56-60 or thereabouts. The thing is, I can't run a 400m (even on a split) under 53 seconds, even after 3 attempts at the 4x4, which shows me how strong I am compared to just how physically slow I also am raw-speed wise. I got dusted by a few guys on my team, but that's okay. They're talented and all ran great.

The more-important indicator that I wanted this race to show me was how I could do in a 1200m. 1200m? Yes, 1200m.

We tried to break the school record in the DMR (distance medley relay) yesterday, but I'll get to that in a moment. Last year at UCSD, I ran the 800m in 1:59 coming off of 8+ months of pure base work, and could barely scratch an abysmal 54.9 in the 4x4. It turned out that the 'natural' speed I had just assumed I had, I did not have. Oops. However, I was able to run a 3:09.0 in the 1200m the previous, which isn't necessarily all that bad.

This year, going 1:56 and cutting a faster-yet-still-quite-slow 53.low in the 4x4 shows my I have that anaerobic strength to really get after it in the 1200m/1500m. I may not be able to run very fast, but I can hold it.

Cut to yesterday. I'm on the 1200m let of our DMR, trying to break the school record of 10:14. As the opening leg, I put immense pressure on myself to get our relay out to a good start. To set the tone for the rest of the relay. I just couldn't get it out of my head all week. The relay record as it stands has a 4:11 anchor, so we needed to get our miler, Bennett, as much of a cushion as possible. I had to run fast, there was no way around it. I had to. I just had to.

I wanted to go out in 61 and then 2:03, thinking that no matter what, I would have at least a 63 in the tank to bring it home. When I ran 3:54 last year, I was pretty tired going into the last lap but still managed a 62.mid.

The race being at 1:40pm, I woke up at 8:00am to do a shakeout and get the blood flowing. The thing is, that only took 20-25min. Now its a few minutes past 8:30am and I'm sitting in my apartment trying not to tremble with nervous anxiety.

People will tell you that the pain of losing or the physical pain of just running is the worst part of track. But they're wrong. It's the waiting. It's the sitting for hours on end, not being able to focus on anything because of the race coming up, trying not to sit for too long because you'll get tight. But not wanting to stand too long because you'll get tired. Wanting to distract yourself but not by doing anything that involves significant movement. Then realizing it's only been 6 minutes. I think the worst way to die would be in the middle of waiting for a race. I feel like the combined stimulus of whatever the fuck is killing me and the anxiety I already felt would give me a heart attack.

My spikes are on and I'm taking the last of my strides. I feel my hand shake with the baton slapping nervously against my leg, but I hardly feel it. I cough and do a dry heave. Holy shit, don't throw up now or else you're really fucked. Calm down. Now. calm down now.

When the gun goes off someone from USC takes it out, followed by a Westmont guy and my first few steps allow my to cut right behind them. After satisfying myself around the first turn that the pace is sufficiently to my liking, I just sit and trot along, coming through the 400m in 61s. Perfect.

Westmont is slowing, the USC guy is pulling away a bit. Cut around him on the back. Okay sit here. Wait, this guy is slowing down too. Come on man, keep it up. Dont pass on the turn, its windy...use it on the straight...okay...okay...go. Time to go.

Coming toward the 800m mark my eyes are fixed on the clock as I try to slowly take the pace down. 2:04.mid. Around with 300m to go and I open up, but I can't shake the USC guy. We're really moving, and with a burst of speed he re-takes the lead with 200m to go and immediately opens up a 5m gap. I counter, but can't catch him. He stays there, 5m ahead of me, all the way in. Hand off to big jeff right on 3:05, would've been a 3:04 had I just run straight through the line.

Jeff destroys the USC kid, running 48.0. Gives it to little Jeff, who runs alone for the first lap, gets pulled back in by USC, but then subsequently blows him out of the water around the final bend to run 1:54.0. Two phenomenal runs. Bennett barely has to run under 4:30 to get the record. He clips off alone to run 4:18/19. 10:06.

I think the record will be there for a long time. It's rare in DIII to get guys to do something like this at this point in the season, and we never run a DMR after this week (week 4?). It's something I think we can be proud of, and will always be one of my favorite memories running for CMS, a program that has given me as much as I could possibly ask for.

Glowing nostalgia aside, the implications of this race are pretty awesome. One of the reasons why I was so nervous was more than the sought after record.

The last 3 years, I have run my 1500m PR going through 1200m about 1.5s faster than I ran the 1200m at this point. I.E., freshman year I ran 3:14 (65 pace), and went through in 3:13 to run 4:02 (64.5 pace). Sophomore year I ran 3:12 (64 pace), and went through 1200m in 3:12 but ran 3:59 (63.5 pace). Junior year I ran 3:09 (63 pace), and went through 1200m in 3:07.5 to run 3:54 (62.5 pace). This year I run 3:05 (61.6 pace).....so can I go through in 3:03.5 (61.1 pace)? That would put me at a 3:49, which would most definitely make nationals and have a good shot at being All-American.

While no metric is perfect, this one has been very consistent in years of less-than-consistent running. I just hope that it's consistent this time as well. If it's not, then let's hope it's just because I run faster.