Millrose 2014

Saturday, Feb 15

Millrose.

Had a good drive up to NJ with Dave Richard and then to NYC with Craig, Bruce and Daryl.

Arrived at 11:45 and met up with the rest of the team at about 12:00 inside the athletes’ entrance. 

We quickly realized we needed to do a uniform check, as some of us had the old singlet and some of us had the new one.  We figured that all out and headed up to the track.  I warmed up on the track, stretched a bit, did some pick-ups, strides and drills, and then spent a good deal of time trying to stay loose.  We made our way to the sauna of a hallway on the second floor and eventually checked in at 1:00 (on the first floor) for our 1:15 race.  I was feeling good.

While the lineup was Nick Berra, to me, to Scott, to Craig, Craig and I had a brief discussion about changing the order.  This was in large part the result of Ed Winslow not being in the race for SW Sprinters.  We kept the order as it.

The race...

Nick got out well and hung behind Andrew Hogue of Central Park TC.  At the 200, Nick sensed that the pace was slower than expected or desired, so he made a move on Andrew at the 225 mark, passing him at about 250.  He then uncorked a nice kick to bring the stick in the lead by 15 meters.  I took the baton and proceeded conservatively, knowing that the guy from SW Sprinters had run 51 or so outdoors last year and that I needed to keep something in the tank.  I could feel him at the 210-meter mark, which meant that my first 200 was slower than usual and his was really fast.  I felt pretty smooth across the first 200, although I was surprised that my legs felt a little in knots. He pulled near even with me on the turn.  That’s when I went to my arms and toes and made him run to the outside.  I drove around the turn and down the homestretch in a manner I had not felt in some time.  I handed the baton to Scott with a 2-3 meter lead over SW.  Scott was up against Lyndell Pittman, who had split 52 at Penn Relays last year.  Lyndell took the first 50m aggressively, passing Scott, who smartly hung onto him.  Scott stayed in close contact with him over the first 300 meters.  Over the last 100 meters, however, Lyndell produced an impressive kick.  Scott plowed down the homestretch and gave the baton to Craig. Craig, about 20 meters or so behind at the exchange, took the turn aggressively and ran a balanced first lap.  Given that the anchor from SW ran 53 seconds in the 400 last year, by the time Craig began the second lap the goal became to run a strong second 200 and hit 3:40 or better.  And he almost did: 3:41.55.

When we finished, our teammates in the stands gave us the following approximate splits:

53.5  Nick

54.0  Delvin

55.7  Scott

58.4  Craig

3:41.6

I was fairly pleased.  I was more pleased, however, when I saw video and got the "official" splits:

53.01 Nick Berra

53.66 Delvin Dinkins

56.38 Scott Landis

58.50 Craig Strimel

3:41.55 (FAT)

VIDEO: photo.php
https://www.facebook.com/247259177362/videos/10152254037302363/

I am happy that I posted 53, more than a second faster that last year’s effort.

The M50 4x400 put on a great showing.  Darryl (approx 57.5), Bruce (approx 58.2), Ray (approx 56.9) and Dave (approx 57.5) all ran well, so much so that they broke the meet record in the event.  

3:50 and change.  Way to go, guys!

I cooled down with Nick and Scott for about 30 minutes in and around the area.  I certainly felt that!