Indoor Nationals 2008 - a memorable weekend.

I was running along the Charles river in Boston this morning contemplating the last two days of racing, when who came up on me but David Cannon, winner of the mile and 3k in my age group, all smiles. We ran together and talked about great it was to be here racing. One big theme for this masters track racing scene is the friendliness and inclusiveness of the participants. We want to race all out and put the hurt to the other guy/gal, but before and after its very friendly and gracious.

For me getting to Boston this year was an up and down path. One days training gave me confidence from running fast and easy, the next took it away with nagging pains and rough patches. The overall average was "barely good enough", so I booked the trip and made the journey, hoping for another sub-5, this time maybe around 4:55 on a good day. I got here to find a few top rivals completely out with injury, sitting in the stands spectating. This reminded me that I'm a pretty lucky guy to get to that starting line in good enough shape to run respectably fast, even if winning or medaling is a super long odds kind of thing.

Coming alone, I just hoped I'd hook up with someone or other, and sure enough I immediately ran into an acquaintence from a previous meet, Reid, who took me under his wing and added me into his contingent of Idahoeans. Guess what, these people were terrific company, even more into running than me (impossible you might think, but true!), and provided some inspiring performances and dramatic moments. Emil knocked me from 4th to 5th in the mile by winning the second section, Christine ran beautifully in 3 races (two medals), Reid helped me understand what its all about with his upbeat reality based joy in being at the meet running, and Rick showed how fragile we all really are when he ruptured his achilles tendon 450 meters into an 800 relay leg. By the way Rick is a sub-4 minute miler who ran under Bill Dellinger at O.U. and Reid ran in two olympic trials with "the man who invented running" Frank Shorter in 72 and 76.

The big race for me was the 1 mile. The field went out very slow given the caliber of field. I tucked into 5th place and I think the 209 split for me was 40 or even 41 seconds. This means I had to really push hard to break 5, and actually ran my goal pace for the rest of the race. After this one lap, the leaders picked it up and we strung out and stayed strung out. I never looked back so am not sure how close anyone behind was, instead focused in on the next person ahead, he was way ahead but faded just a hair in the last 400 meters and I was able to move past him from 5th into 4th with 200 to go, hold that, and finish with ... yet another 4:59. My last 3 mile races yielded: 4:59.8, 4:59.1, 4:59.2. Am I consistent or what!? Emil then knocked me down one place by easily winning the following 2nd section race. He should have put in something besides "No Time" when he registered!

I got to see Frank Condon age 65 power to a new world indoor age group 1 mile record of 5:12. The guy is amazing, he runs really kind of "ugly", but he motors at a very fast cadence and keeps that happening all the way. "Fearless Frank" I call him. A very positive and dynamic personality too.

After a night of celebrating with a Legal Seafood feast, I was up early for the 800 feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. Warming up gradually I was able to work out the sluggishness and many kinks. Having done more or less zero 800 specific training I had no real expectations other than to run hard and enjoy the race. This time the race went OUT, in about 31-32, I was all by myself in last place with a 34. Thats about all you need to know. Winning time well under 2:10, my time 2:18 high. Never felt like it was all that hard, just couldn't move any faster. Time to get back to the sprint training!

I was stretching before the mile race, and next to me was a guy in the 80 to 84 age group. We talked and I learned he'd had a sleepless night, worrying about his upcoming 60 meter race. The race was now over and he said he'd figured hed take 4th and sure enough those he'd expected to finish ahead had done just that, so he was satisfied. He was staying loose (for an 80 year old) for the long jump later that day. I guess no matter how old we get the race experience still has that mix of high payoff and high risk that makes us at the same time nervous, excited, scared and oh so alive!