The need for speed

"Just how much speed do I need?" Thats what I asked myself after both the 800 quarterfinals and the 1500 semifinals at the world masters track and field championships in which I was in both cases dusted by 3 or more speedy finishers and knocked out of advancing to the next round. Prior to competing at the world level I thought my speed was good, now I know it doesn't cut it in an intelligent field of serious practicioners of track racing.

As the goal was to advance, some heats were slow, some weren't. I drew up a slowish 800 heat (heat 3 of 6) and easily positioned myself into 5th with 200 to go, with top 3 advancing. I thought "I'll just kick now and move to 3rd". But... I wasn't the only one with this plan, and a couple of guys went by me like I was moving backwards during my 'kick'! I fiinished 6th of 12, 2 seconds out of qualifying for the next round. It was sort of looking like slow heats meant there were lots of fast kickers in the mix.

When my 1500 semifinal heat (heat 2 of 4) started and apart from one guy who sprinted out from the gun I found myself right near the front of the pack I knew once again there were going to be some fast finishes and I'd have trouble being one of the top 3 automatic qualifiers. It was so painfully slow I knew unless I did something to speed it up there would be no chance to move on, so I moved right to the front and led the field for 800 meters. This was actually the highlight of the entire racing experience for me, and I've found a picture showing me leading the field which you see here! But.... with 400 to go the floodgates opened. One, two, three.. it seemed like the entire field blew by me. I had a good last 400, plenty of gas in the tank, but once again, my 'speed' was not in the same league as 6 other competitors, and I finished 7th of 14, 4 seconds out of qualifying for the next round. Very similar to the 800 (mid pack, 1 second slower than needed per 100 meters of kicking). With 20 20 hindsight, I should have pushed the pace during my 800 meters of glory, and ran for a fast time and maybe burned out some of the kicks.

Racing in a world championships was quite a lot of fun and a great challenge. Once the body recovers from its long season of racing, its time to work on speed!

http://www.dbwma2007.org/results/atwma/2007/riccione0409200701/at/indexf...