The last couple of weeks were missing entries because I was
traveling to and from Louisville, Kentucky, for American Mensa’s Annual
Gathering. It was a great time, and I
was able to do most of my mileage, but as with most vacations, lots of
unhealthy food and beverages and too little sleep. It was fun, but I’m glad to be home and back
to training.
On Thursday, I participated in an unique fundraiser for a
local high school cross country team. We
were in teams of seven, running a relay race where each runner did a mile
before tagging to the next runner. The
winner would then be the team who accumulated the most miles.
Of course, my run club doesn’t go halfway…we had a plethora
of food, chairs, Gatorade, and even a game of bags to play. (We were one the rubberized field, so the fire
pit and s’mores stayed in the car.) The
goal was as much to have a good time as it was to PR on the individual miles,
and the DJ helped to create a festive environment. My team decided on a theme of costumes, so we
had jorts, troll hair, ugly sweaters, and twins.
It had been years since I had “raced” on a track, especially
a 1600, and I had complete forgotten how to warm up and prep for that distance. Plus, the last time I ran a relay was
probably for our grade school’s Junior Olympics field day. When my “twin” tagged me, I obviously went
out way too fast and just died at the end.
8:31.
A friend who also ran showed up and was kind enough to read
splits. So helpful, because it kept that
first 400 in the 2-min window. My second
was an “adult” PR of 8:22. (My actual PR
for the 1600 is 7:06, which I did at 15.)
As the night wore on, mental fatigue wore in. Our team had some trouble counting laps—at one
point my twin ran up to me and said he was done, but I thought he had only done
two laps. However, we kept going and
going and going….8:25, 8:27. I finished
my fourth mile, laid down on a blanket, and realized I was covered in sweat,
despite it being a cool evening. While decent
times (and definitely sub-BQ pace), I was disappointed. I had been working hard, so I had hoped to
see a significant improvement in my mile time. Perhaps if I had been home training I would have been fasher
By the end of the night, we started to count through the
team, and based on everyone’s approximate time, I would be the last runner. Anchor leg!
I was tagged at 3:54, so I figured I could do about a 1200 (3 laps). After the first lap, the team captain ran
with me, talking, while the theme from Chariots of Fire played. It was surreal with the lights, the high
schoolers passing me, the music, the splits being read, the cheers….and I was
about 40 m short of a full 1200. Epic
movie moment, and a great way to end the night.
It was a great night of comraderie, teamwork, fun, and
community spirit. I can’t wait until
next year and have another chance to smash a PR!
