I was less hyped

Monday, 6/13/11--recovery run of 25 minutes; 3.1 miles or so.

Sunday, 6/14/11--Widener. Mid-Atlantic Championships.
I arrived at about 11 with plenty of time to check-in, socialize with teammates and warm up twice. The day was temperate but also balmy at times. I had to seek out shade every now and then. There were only two heats of the 800. My heat featured my team's very own Nick Berra, who was surprisingly seeded third. My legs felt a little heavy, but I was otherwise ready to go. Despite my anticipation of the race, I found that I was less hyped than I was for the race at Henderson the week before. Perhaps this had to do with the fact that there were far fewer people in the race and in the stands!

Anyway, we began in lanes...through the turn. When I cut in I found myself in fourth place, which I held the entire race. I remember a solid 30 at the 200 and a 60 and change at the quarter. Nick and the other front runner went out in 58-59. I could feel myself tiring a bit of course but I just tried to relax. I hit 1:32 at the 600. I was sure I had run 2:04, but it turned out that my time was 2:06, which meant that my last 200 was mighty slow...in the neighborhood of 34 sec. Nick ran 1:57, followed by 1:58, 2:03 and then me at 2:06. I didn't even feel like I was that far behind the 26-year old who posted 2:03, much less 9 seconds behind Nick. Funny, though. I remember watching the last part of the race...Nick outkicking the kid. I felt like a bystander in my own race.

An hour later there was the 4x800 relay with Dave, Nick, me and Phil (our only fresh runner)...in that order. Immediately after the 800 I didn;t feel I had it in me to do it. But I felt okay by the time I had cooled down. We wound up going up against TNT, whose Lanier brothers were fresh from having not competed earlier. I wish I could say it was a head-to-head event. TNT had a commanding lead after 600 meters, but Dave (52) chased the TNT runner down and handed the baton to Nick within 15 meters. Nick caught Kareem Lanier at the 300 mark and just coasted from there. He gave me the bton with perhaps a 20 meter lead on Kyle Lanier. I ran the first 200 in 30, according to the splits Chuck called as a went by, and hit the quarter at 62. I relaxed on the 3rd 200, as I was trying to gather myself for a strong last 100 meters. I remember Chuck saying 1:37 at the 600. I felt like I was striding. Once I came off the turn I kicked it in with a 15-second last 100 to end in about 2:10. There was no "word" from Kyle. I led by at least 30 meters of so when I handed off to Phil, who brought home the gold, winning by 100 meters over the kid who ran 2:03 in the open 800.