No MSG For Me

When I tipped the scales a little heavier than I would like last week I made a commitment to watch what I ate{the traditional no Pizza,no Ice Cream,no Mexican till after Indoor Nationals at the end of March}was a given but frankly missing out on the Millrose Games Masters 4x4 relay was not what I had in mind for cutting out MSG!!!!!.
The stage had been set last Sunday at Swarthmore when Ray decided he would now run Millrose and threw down a 56.2,in doing so he pulled Bobby Mc to a 57.0 which edged my Seton Hall Dec 6th 57.08 to 5th place...........ergo the showdown at Delaware on Sunday,"High Noon""Delaware 400""Thunderdome"call it what you will,six runners were looking to nab the three remaining places on the Millrose relay w/ Nick who holds the club record at 52.8.

Getting up at 6am to catch the 7.38am R2 to Marcus Hook to meet up w/ Chuck for a ride to University Of Delaware was hardly how I wanted to start my day but given the lackluster beginning to my indoor season thus far{57.08 400m,2.05 800m,4.50.1 mile,10.16 3,000m} if ever there was a day to kick start it it was now.
I'd never ran indoors at Delaware, as indoor facilities go it's a good one,I'd run here again,the next two Philly Masters meets at Albright on 1.17 and at Glen Mills on 1.31 you can have,I hate those two tracks,I'd rather train than race there.

Slowly but surely the 400m squad began to arrive,Scott,Bob Mc,Dave,Daryl.......but no sign of Ray,not sure if he was injured,second guessing his Millrose/Chicago schedule or hoping his 56.2 would hold up?one less rival to duke it out w/,a former teammate Rick took Ray's place in our heat.
Following my warm up mile and stretches it was time to get ready,a big thank you to Jim Fischer the meet director for arranging it so that we could all race together....a big raspberry to whoever assigned me lane 6!
I crapped out w/ lane 1 at Seton Hall 5 weeks ago and continued to crap out today,fuckin'lane 6 scuse my french but fuckin' ada!!!,the one lane I did NOT want,it's tough to run a 200m or 400m blind but I always knew today was not a tactical race it was about going out like a bat out of hell and hoping that'd be good enough.

I got a good reaction to the gun and hammered the first turn and back straight,b4 the second turn I sensed someone moving up on my inside,Bob Mc in lane 5 and as we rounded the bottom bend and broke at 150m Scott made a move from lane three to nab the rail w/ Bob right on him,I needed to get up on their heals however Dave in lane 2 was hanging tough and not yielding an inch,w/ hindsight the race was probably won and lost there for me.
I think Scott and Bob went thro 200m in 26 seconds followed by Dave and me possibly in 27 seconds.
Down the back straight I didn't feel the gap between us was changing,I was running out of real estate and quickly,I needed to find another gear but there wasn't one,off the last turn I showed the heart,fight,grit and determination so badly lacking at The Armory on Thursday and fought my way past Dave to take third.

Scott won in 55.6,Bob Mc second in 55.9,me third in 57.08,Dave fourth in 57.1,Daryl fifth in 57.5,Scott and Bob Mc had leap frogged Ray's 56.2 but I was still out in the cold.
57.08 again,can you believe that shit??gobsmacked was putting it mildly.
So no Millrose Games for me this year,fair's fair the deal was and will be for relay selection the four fastest guys w/ current time,at the end of the day I was not good enough to make it into the top four and therefore don't deserve to run at MGS for the Millrose Games on Jan 29th.

Is it the end of the world,ah hell no,am I disappointed,hell yeah!!! but I've been saying since last year that it was going to get harder and harder to make the Millrose and Penn 4x400 teams and frankly if it was this hard at 46 imagine what it'll be like next year at 47??
I will as the alternate runner be responsible enough to keep training and preparing as if I am on the team,I don't wish injury,illness or anything on Nick,Scott,Bob or Ray but were something to crop up between now and then I need to be ready to jump in and replace one of them.
I refuse to believe"my song is coming to an end"maybe I've been lucky the past 4 years to make Penn and Millrose 4x4s,I've always said I'm not a 400m runner,but good enough to make those teams,maybe this year is the beginning of a few down years till 2014 and the 50s 4x4 teams?