From slug to bus: is this an improvement?

Posted by simon on 3/6/2007 on simon's blog

I have an improvement to report: for the last few weeks I have been running like a slug. Now I am running like a bus. Slow, noisy, makes frequent stops, but always gets to the end of the route.

My heavy breathing on the trail today caused great alarm in the colony of prairie dogs, normally so blase about runners that they won't move even if you're about to tread on them. It also frightened the bejesus out of two young women who didn't hear me until I was almost on top of them, if you'll excuse the phrase.

I caught them in the dying moments of a "fast surge". I am practising for Thursday morning, when I have rashly agreed to meet Patty to restart our once-a-week tempo (for me) and easy-brisk (for her) runs. I say rashly, because the day after agreeing, I read this on Ken Stone's Master's News blog:

"Patty Murray, W40 champ at the recent USATF cross country championships at home in Boulder, traveled down the road to Colorado Springs on Sunday and ran a 1500 in 4:50.52 at the Colorado Association and Mid-America Region USATF masters indoor championships. (That's only a couple seconds off the listed USA indoor record.)"
Read the full story here.

As usual, Patty hadn't thought it worth mentioning. What is worth mentioning is that she won by miles, lapping all but one of the field -- and didn't even know what the record was, let alone that she was within striking distance of it.

I think I'll be suffering on Thursday.

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2 comments

dave albo says:

I was witness to Patty's near record 1500 (at 7000 feet). Trust me, there was none of this heavy noisy breathing going on, at least not till the last lap. All I saw at that time was Patty's one and only indicator of effort, that being her right eye kind of halfway closed. This race was a sharpener for the upcoming Carlsbad 5k. I believe if Patty had known she was on near record pace, the record would be hers. Given that the official adjustments for running a 1500 at this venue is about 10 seconds due to altitude:

http://www1.ncaa.org/membership/champadmin/track/index.html

this gives Patty the equivalent of 4:40, which would certainly smash the existing record of 4:48.4

http://www.usatf.org/statistics/records/masters_indoorTF.asp

and it indicates a sub 5 mile at sea level is very possible. Can you tell I'm happy for her and excited?

Dave

by dave albo on Tue, 2007-03-06 14:41