Sat, 2/9/19
Rob (and his significant other, Ann), Wayne, and I headed up together, Rob at the wheel. When they arrived at my house at about 8:35, I was ready to roll.
We arrived at the parking lot at 9:50, in time for a 10:00 meet-up on this rather frigid day in the 30s. Our event, Masters Men's 40-49 and 50+ 4x400 meter relay, was scheduled for 12:29. We organized ourselves, following the usual routine of Chuck divvying out runner's bibs, pins, and wrist tickets. We made our way to the draped arena and hung out for a while, some of us going here and there, to and fro. Knowing the track was scheduled to close for warmups at 11:00, I started my mile warm up at about 10:45. A few laps in I found myself with John Goldthorp, Brock Butler, Chuck Kruelle, and perhaps a couple other teammates. It felt good to warm up together...as a team. I stretched on the infield until we were asked to clear the track areas, which was at about 11:05.
I sat in the stands for a while, deciding we'd head down to the balmy corridor on the second floor at 11:25. I got some good stretching ad striding in, despite the crowded area. We reported to the check-in on the bottom floor as scheduled, 35 minutes before race time. I continued to stretch until we were told to get 100% race ready (uniform on, spikes in hand, nothing else) to head up to the third floor. It was about 12:15 at that point.
As we waited, knowing the 50s were going to be on the back line and the 40s would be on the front line, my mind played around some with the race plan. Since Rob had mentioned his sore hamstring to me the other day, we switched the order so that he, rather than I, would anchor. I was hoping this would pan out as the best option. I continued visualize how I was going to attack the race. In the gathering area, I started to feel a little oddity in my hamstring. I was like argh! Then, as I continued to move around and do sprint drills, the feel subsided, and with that release came optimism. I still knew Southwest-40s would be untouchable, but all the other teams, even Southwest's 50s team, were fair game.
Then we lined up. Dry mouth kicked in. Thankfully, Rob had water on hand to share. We were called trackside as the Mixed Men's 60+/Women's 40+ finished up. We were up!
Telegraphic style, here are the headlines:
One heat. Alley start, 50s on back line, 40s on front line. Two turn stagger. John Goldthorp was lead off! Lane 10 of 11. To his left were Andrew Hogue of CPTC, Mark Williams of Garmin, and Rawle DeLisle of SW; to his right was Quinn Pack of Mass Velocity. The gun went off...and then the guys were called back. Seems teammate John Curtis jumped the gun a bit. Try #2 was a fair start. As expected, everyone got out aggressively. Big John was in second at the break, while John G was in fifth but gaining. The second lap saw SW extend the lead, but Mark, Andrew, John C., and Getulio Echeandia of SW battling out. A big move by Getulio sealed the deal. Coming down the homestretch, as I had predicted, John G. finished up powerfully and pulled even with John at the handoff. Brock ran an even, seemingly effortless leg. He cut into lead of CPTC and Garmin, handing me the baton with a hair of a lead on them and within 10 meters of Clinton Aurelien. I created some daylight between me and Garmin and CPTC, heading for Clinton. I put my head down a little and found that, at the 100-mark, I was within maybe 4-5 meters of Clinton. I closed the gap a little more by the 200-meter mark. At this point, I was trying to decide what to do. And I decided a few meters too late: I went to make a pass on the outside on the backstretch, but I ran out of real estate. I had to tuck back into lane 1, some of my energy depleted. I should have started my push at the top of the turn rather than on the backstretch. At any rate, Clinton maintained a 2-3-meter lead as we handed off. Nursing a sore hamstring, Rob finished the race in 3:48.64. Although I truly believed we could have run in the mid-3:40s, second place among the 40s teams was pretty good. Our 50s squad finished with silver as well.
Mixed Men's 40s+/50s+ 4x400 meter relays-Millrose (2019)
The results page indicates the following splits for our 40s team:
John G: 56.84 (-1) (hopefully to come down two seconds by Penn)
Brock B: 54.50 -- (hopefully come down a second by Penn or at least remain the same given Boston Marathon training)
Delvin D.: 55.23 -- OK time given hamstring (need to come down a second or so by Penn)
Rob S.: 62.09 (-4) (hopefully come down five seconds by Penn)
...And then there's John C. (Could we be looking at four legs at below 55?)
We watched some more races and then headed to Coogans a bit after 5:00 for an early dinner. We had an awesome time hanging' out. It was great that Carl Stocking and Wayne Foulke came out to support the team, Wayne prepared to step in as alternate for either age group.
Now it's time to turn my attention to Nationals!
Fri, 2/8/19-went to the Y in the early AM for a little pre-race action: Did a 9:00 mile and stretched!
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