3/15/14 - Thoughts from the night before
My head is all over the place right now. For some reason, I'm coughing a ton tonight, and my wife is trying to convince me not to run. To be specific, she said, "You're stupid if you are going to run." She also asked, "Don't you just want to sleep in tomorrow and relax around the house all day?" Well, of course that's what I want to do, but this is THE RACE, the one I've been keying on all year. She's like the angel (or maybe the devil) on my shoulder, trying to sway me. But I can't give in to the temptation. It's the easy way out, and I'm not interested. Also, so many people know that I'm supposed to be running tomorrow; how will it look if I'm a DNS? Darn you, Commitment Principle.
My only real worry is that I'll somehow do permanent damage to my poor lungs. After my last 800, I couldn't stop coughing for a good five minutes, and that was pre-bronchitis. What will an all-out 800 do to my already suffering respiratory system? Whatever, I can always drop out if things don't seem right during the race. I'm doing this thing.
Goals and plan for tomorrow's race:
Goal: Break 2:00. I don't care what place I get. I just want my time to start with a '1'.
Race plan: There are two guys in the race who are almost certainly faster than I am. One won the 400 on Friday in 51 seconds and is seeded at 1:54. The other won the mile Saturday in 4:29 and is a former 1:51 800 runner. My hope is that they will take it out hard, and I can settle in behind them and get dragged along to a decent time.
As far as pacing goes, my first lap needs to be sub-30 if I'm going to have a chance at this. No lollygagging in this race. I need to remember to run on the verge of discomfort that first lap. After that, it's just a matter of maintaining pace and kicking. I'm anticipating having a clock at the end of the homestretch to gauge my time each lap. I need to make sure I'm under pace the whole way.
Prediction: I think it's going to be very close. If I do it, it won't be by much. I'd say I have an equal chance of breaking 2:00 as I do of not breaking it. On my best day, I might be able to run 1:58. I could also very easily see myself running another 2:02. My point is this: I have no idea whether or not it's going to happen. I haven't been on a track in over a month, so for all I know I've been running 34-second 200s in my workouts. Here's hoping that wasn't the case!
The atmosphere of the meet was pretty cool. Like the last meet, there were A LOT of grandparent-types running around in spandex, but this time they were quite a bit faster. The most amazing thing I saw was an 80-year-old lady run the 200 in 36 seconds, breaking the WR by 5 seconds! It was ridiculous. Only two individual track events were being contested on the day -- the 200 and the 800. There were so many age groups, however, that these two events alone were going to take up many, many hours.
We sat and watched a bunch of events, while I tried to figure out the best time to take a warm-up jog. It was hard to judge where we were on the schedule. The meet seemed to be running behind, but they were also running somewhat out of order. Between every few heats of an 800, they threw in the odd 200 trials, which were supposed to have been held in the morning. I decided to go outside at what I estimated to be roughly 40 minutes before my race would go off. It was cold and very windy, and I was glad I'd be racing in the controlled environment of the indoor track on this day. I ran for 10 minutes and threw in a 30-second surge to wake up the old body. I headed back inside to check on the meet's progress. Still running behind by 20 minutes or so.
I took my time gathering my stuff and strolled with my family over to the indoor gym to do some active stretching. After I few minutes, I did some short sprints in the upstairs hallways while monitoring the meet through the windows overlooking the track. All of a sudden, I realized that the meet was catching back up to schedule. The men's 35-39 800 was on the track. My race was next! Panic stricken, I bolted downstairs to my bag and grabbed my spikes. I ripped off my trainers, pulled out the orthopedic insoles, chucked them into the spikes, and then threw on the spikes as quickly as I could (still taking the time to triple-knot them, of course). My insoles were totally in the wrong spot, sitting under my arch instead of my heel, but there's was nothing I could do about that now. I got over to the starting line just in time to see the previous race end. Wow, that was a close call.
I was seeded third in the race. As I mentioned before, I wasn't expecting to hang with the guys on my inside, but I couldn't let anyone on the outside cut in front of me at the start. It was time to be aggressive. At the gun, I shot out, held off the outside attackers, and let the two top seeds slide to the front. I settled in behind them, hooking my car onto their train for the ride. There were two clocks visible from the track, so I was able to monitor my splits every hundred meters. I'd have no excuses not to maintain my goal pace. We hit the 100 in 14 seconds or so, and I reminded myself that this should feel fast but relaxed. I stayed close to the leaders through the 200 in 29.3. Perfect. Now I just needed to run 30's the rest of the way.
The top guys slowed almost imperceptibly at the start of the second lap, but that kind of pace change feels enormous in an 800. I thought about trying to make a move, but winning was not the point here. I wanted a fast time and wasn't going to waste any energy yet. The guy in fourth clipped my heel, and I briefly imagined tumbling off the banked curve onto the infield. Focus, focus, focus. I maintained contact over the rest of the lap but felt a presence on my shoulder the whole time. As we approached the 400, the fourth place guy made a move to pass me. I let him go. If he beats me, so be it. I want that sub-2:00 and need to save myself. The 400 split was just under 60 (lap split 30.6). Maintain for one more lap, and then kick.
Midway through the third lap, I realized I hadn't planned on exactly when I would kick. On an indoor track, you can lose track of where you are in the race, and that happened to me. I remember going around the final curve of the third lap and thinking to myself, oh no, there's less than 300 to go, I should be kicking by now! The leaders were starting to gap the third guy, and I didn't want to lose sight of them completely. This was a race after all. I used a small surge right before the final lap to move around the guy and get closer to the second place. This was the only time during the race I moved outside of lane 1. I needed to minimize the extra distance I ran to have a chance at sub-2. The lap split was 30.4, and we were now slightly over 2:00 pace. I needed a final lap of under 29.5 to get it. I was still feeling very good, but I wasn't sure I had that kind of speed in me. This would be close.
By the backstretch on the last lap, the race was out of reach. The top two guys didn't seem to be slowing down and had probably a second or two on me. It was just me against the clock. I didn't even bother looking at the time with 100 to go, I just dug down and pushed as hard as I could over the final stretch. I ended up closing on the leaders a bit in the last 50 but not enough to scare them. I watched the clock tick up closer and closer to 2:00 and crossed the line as it changed over to that dreaded number. Did I get it? It was going to be awfully close.
The scoreboard showed the winner's time - 1:59.03. Oof. I was pretty certain I didn't finish within a second of him. Then the 2nd place time showed up - 1:59.26. Ugh. Not looking good. I mentally prepared myself for 2:00.00 to show up next to my name. And then it came: 1:59.90. I clapped and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It's crazy that if I'd run a tenth of a second slower, I would have been immensely disappointed in my race, yet there I was, ecstatic, as if I'd just won the Olympics. A tenth of a second is nothing. In basketball, you're not even allowed to catch a pass and shoot the ball if there are fewer than three-tenths left on the clock. But that's the nature of these arbitrary "barriers" -- like breaking 17 (or 16) in the 5K or 3:00:00 in the marathon. If you don't go under, you might as well have missed by an hour.
So, just under 11 years since the last time I did it (and almost exactly 11 years to the day since the last time I did it indoors), I was back on the right side of 2:00. What a relief.
Incredibly, I didn't have a coughing fit after the race. In fact, I coughed less the night after the race than I had the night before the race, and now my cough is all but gone. That doesn't make sense. Also, my knee pain that had absolutely killed every time I tried to run fast was a non-factor. I didn't feel it at all, and it, too, now feels much better. Maybe I just need to run all-out for two minutes every time I get sick or injured. It's apparently the miracle cure.
Next up is the Brrr-lingame 10 mile trail race. Only 20 times longer than this weekend's race. Can't wait! (No, really, I can't wait.)
Race video taken by my wife is below. My son handled it better this time. The video is tiny, so you might want to make it full screen. And don't worry, we've already had the discussion about landscape vs. portrait videography. It won't happen again.
3/16/14 - Race Day
After last night's uncertainty, I decided to run the race. Katie, Seb, and I hopped in the car and drove the 90 minutes up to the Reggie Lewis Center. For all the running I've done on Boston-area indoor tracks, this would be my first time running at this legendary arena. I was quite nervous the night before the race, but having my family there for the drive up helped distract me. We found an incredible parking spot almost right in front of the building, which was surely an omen that this would be a good day (as long as pig man didn't jump on it).The atmosphere of the meet was pretty cool. Like the last meet, there were A LOT of grandparent-types running around in spandex, but this time they were quite a bit faster. The most amazing thing I saw was an 80-year-old lady run the 200 in 36 seconds, breaking the WR by 5 seconds! It was ridiculous. Only two individual track events were being contested on the day -- the 200 and the 800. There were so many age groups, however, that these two events alone were going to take up many, many hours.
 |
| The little guy was excited to cheer on the runners. |
I took my time gathering my stuff and strolled with my family over to the indoor gym to do some active stretching. After I few minutes, I did some short sprints in the upstairs hallways while monitoring the meet through the windows overlooking the track. All of a sudden, I realized that the meet was catching back up to schedule. The men's 35-39 800 was on the track. My race was next! Panic stricken, I bolted downstairs to my bag and grabbed my spikes. I ripped off my trainers, pulled out the orthopedic insoles, chucked them into the spikes, and then threw on the spikes as quickly as I could (still taking the time to triple-knot them, of course). My insoles were totally in the wrong spot, sitting under my arch instead of my heel, but there's was nothing I could do about that now. I got over to the starting line just in time to see the previous race end. Wow, that was a close call.
I was seeded third in the race. As I mentioned before, I wasn't expecting to hang with the guys on my inside, but I couldn't let anyone on the outside cut in front of me at the start. It was time to be aggressive. At the gun, I shot out, held off the outside attackers, and let the two top seeds slide to the front. I settled in behind them, hooking my car onto their train for the ride. There were two clocks visible from the track, so I was able to monitor my splits every hundred meters. I'd have no excuses not to maintain my goal pace. We hit the 100 in 14 seconds or so, and I reminded myself that this should feel fast but relaxed. I stayed close to the leaders through the 200 in 29.3. Perfect. Now I just needed to run 30's the rest of the way.
The top guys slowed almost imperceptibly at the start of the second lap, but that kind of pace change feels enormous in an 800. I thought about trying to make a move, but winning was not the point here. I wanted a fast time and wasn't going to waste any energy yet. The guy in fourth clipped my heel, and I briefly imagined tumbling off the banked curve onto the infield. Focus, focus, focus. I maintained contact over the rest of the lap but felt a presence on my shoulder the whole time. As we approached the 400, the fourth place guy made a move to pass me. I let him go. If he beats me, so be it. I want that sub-2:00 and need to save myself. The 400 split was just under 60 (lap split 30.6). Maintain for one more lap, and then kick.
Midway through the third lap, I realized I hadn't planned on exactly when I would kick. On an indoor track, you can lose track of where you are in the race, and that happened to me. I remember going around the final curve of the third lap and thinking to myself, oh no, there's less than 300 to go, I should be kicking by now! The leaders were starting to gap the third guy, and I didn't want to lose sight of them completely. This was a race after all. I used a small surge right before the final lap to move around the guy and get closer to the second place. This was the only time during the race I moved outside of lane 1. I needed to minimize the extra distance I ran to have a chance at sub-2. The lap split was 30.4, and we were now slightly over 2:00 pace. I needed a final lap of under 29.5 to get it. I was still feeling very good, but I wasn't sure I had that kind of speed in me. This would be close.
 |
| Trying to close the gap on the final curve. |
By the backstretch on the last lap, the race was out of reach. The top two guys didn't seem to be slowing down and had probably a second or two on me. It was just me against the clock. I didn't even bother looking at the time with 100 to go, I just dug down and pushed as hard as I could over the final stretch. I ended up closing on the leaders a bit in the last 50 but not enough to scare them. I watched the clock tick up closer and closer to 2:00 and crossed the line as it changed over to that dreaded number. Did I get it? It was going to be awfully close.
The scoreboard showed the winner's time - 1:59.03. Oof. I was pretty certain I didn't finish within a second of him. Then the 2nd place time showed up - 1:59.26. Ugh. Not looking good. I mentally prepared myself for 2:00.00 to show up next to my name. And then it came: 1:59.90. I clapped and breathed a huge sigh of relief.
It's crazy that if I'd run a tenth of a second slower, I would have been immensely disappointed in my race, yet there I was, ecstatic, as if I'd just won the Olympics. A tenth of a second is nothing. In basketball, you're not even allowed to catch a pass and shoot the ball if there are fewer than three-tenths left on the clock. But that's the nature of these arbitrary "barriers" -- like breaking 17 (or 16) in the 5K or 3:00:00 in the marathon. If you don't go under, you might as well have missed by an hour.
So, just under 11 years since the last time I did it (and almost exactly 11 years to the day since the last time I did it indoors), I was back on the right side of 2:00. What a relief.
Incredibly, I didn't have a coughing fit after the race. In fact, I coughed less the night after the race than I had the night before the race, and now my cough is all but gone. That doesn't make sense. Also, my knee pain that had absolutely killed every time I tried to run fast was a non-factor. I didn't feel it at all, and it, too, now feels much better. Maybe I just need to run all-out for two minutes every time I get sick or injured. It's apparently the miracle cure.
Next up is the Brrr-lingame 10 mile trail race. Only 20 times longer than this weekend's race. Can't wait! (No, really, I can't wait.)
Race video taken by my wife is below. My son handled it better this time. The video is tiny, so you might want to make it full screen. And don't worry, we've already had the discussion about landscape vs. portrait videography. It won't happen again.
Haha, great work! I'm very pleased that you reached your goal. Nice video too - I liked your wife's commentary towards the end ("Last time he got so sad.")
ReplyDeleteHell yeah! Daddy's got the kick today! Congrats Chris! We all know how precious that 0.1 is and how hard you have to push yourself to get it, how huge it is in the end. Well done.
ReplyDeletePS - Ha! it WAS all psychosomatic. See if we ever listen your cries of wolf again.
Fantastic race, Chris! Really impressive 800, and great writeup - see you Saturday!
ReplyDelete11 years later - it's got to feel good! Congrats!!
ReplyDeleteFantastic! Glad you got it. 0.1 is crazy!
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Chris! Sub 2 is a sweet feeling. Good job in setting your goal and getting it done! There are very few guys over 30 in New England that can still move that fast over 800m. Great job!!
ReplyDeleteAwesome job, Chris! While I'll never break 2 minutes in an 800, I can relate with your sub-3 marathon analogy, especially as it took me 13 tries to get there. It's a huge accomplishment when you break that barrier. Nicely done. A proud moment for all of WTAC.
ReplyDeleteenjoyed the write up - nice job Chris
ReplyDelete