Kicking Off In Haverford

Now that the dust has settled on my 08 season opener I can hopefully look back on last nites race and be objective.I knew ahead of time I,d have my work cut out for me as I,m still working my way back into speed workouts a fact not helped this past week by mother nature and her friggin size nine bovver boots which stomped all over the one track session I was able to muster and 86ed the other two,clearly taking on college kids at his early stage of my season was akin to sticking my head into the lions mouth. I would love the chance to have this race next month when hopefully a months worth of uninterupted track works out three times a week will have me far sharper than I felt last nite,that said my season had to begin somewhere and unlike last year on a crap 10 lap to the mile track in Albright tonite it was the more conventional 200m track,eight laps to the mile.
I knew going into the race I was seeded 8th fastest albeit on my best indoor mile time of 4.29.12 which in fairness was ran in mid January after a couple of races under my belt and several weeks of repeats,at best I might knock off one of the three Haverford athletes who had posted times of 4.27,4.28,4.29,it was wishful thinking on my part to even consider the prospect of latching onto the four Villanova athletes who had posted times of 4.12,4.12,4.16,4.19,and being pulled to a fast time or even pr,asides from the fact these guys have been training for their respective distances since probably September they were considerably younger than I,the fact I was beaten by 2 seniors,3 freshman and 2 juniors should be neither here nor there.
In a 14 man field the race starter gave those of us out wide on the starting line the option of falling in behind the line an option I choose but later wished maybe I hadn,t as I was forced to pick my way around slower athletes while the big 7 took off,glass half empty a error in judgement on my part a wider start would,ve allowed me better positioning off the first turn,glass half full and I realize contrary to my pre race entry where I said my race plan was to stick w/ the Villnova guys in stark reality I could never have lived w/ them and I went through the opening lap in 33 seconds.
In a scene I,ve played countless times b4 in track,road and xc I soon found myself in no mans land and it was a matter of rattling off each lap in the hope I could close the gap on the three Haverford runners,I don,t recall my splits but did notice I went thro 800m in 2.17.Clearly my speed isn,t there yet but I hope in a few weeks time I,ll be able to work on that.Sensing the third of the Haverford athletes was there for the taking I tried to up my pace but the spirit was far greater than the flesh at this point!
W/ 300m to go I was passed by a Franklin & Marshall senior,I was determined to at least finish 8th so gave chase,4.07 at the bell I dug as deep as I could dig at this point in my season,trust me I,m gonna get faster.I reclaimed 8th place catching the fading Haverford athlete as I clocked 4.41.60,2 seconds behind 7th,2 seconds ahead of 9th.
Ok so I got my rump well and truly handed to me this evening,but in fairness I think I knew that was going to happen so rather than dwell on negatives I,ll look at the positives,a year ago my opening 2 mile races yielded times of 4.48.96 and 4.44.90 so at least in that respect I,m ahead of the curve,also w/ my season opener under my belt I,ll have a better idea what to expect either next Sunday in Landover or the following Sunday in New York providing the weather stops screwing w/ my repeat workouts.