Pleading The Fifth But Finishing Sixth

I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear I like my toast done on one side
And you can hear it in my accent when I talk I'm an Englishman in New York
See me walking down Fifth Avenue a walking cane at my side
I take it everywhere I walk I'm an Englishman in New York

Englishman In New York-Sting

The good news is I made to and from New York City last nite w/out incident or rancor for my race at Icahn Stadium for the second of four Tuesday Nite At The Races series.
The bad news is my time of 2.09.5 is slower than I was hoping for period muchless as a seed time for Nationals.....but w/ an 800m on tap at Heywards Field in Portland Oregon aka Tracktown USA in just over two weeks I'm hopeful of a faster time then leading into Nationals in just over five weeks time.

At least I arrived on Randall's Island at a decent time b4 the meet,the horrors of a fortnite ago seemed like a bad dream as I was able to make my way from midtown to 103rd and Lexington and then walk over the 103rd St bridge and over to the track and have ample time to register,warm up and shoot the breeze w/ the regulars who know me from my frequent trips to NYC
Took some good natured ribbing about arriving on time from some of the NYC fraternity of runners who knew what I went through two weeks ago,I took it in stride I was happy to be here on time and wanted to be focused yet relaxed b4 the meet got under way.

After one heat of the womens 1,500m and four heats of the mens the 400m quickly came and went and then seeding for the 800m.
The seeded heat was a little too rich for my blood 1.50-1.59 and judging from the 8th and last place runner who crossed the line well adrift of the field w/ his 2.07 those guys were the real deal.
Heat 2,ten of us seeded between 2.00-2.10 I lined up 4th on the starting line and waited for the starting gun to go off......

I got a good reaction to the gun,got over into lane one going into the turn w/out having to weave all over the opening turn and settled in to the rear of the pack in 7th place.
I heard splits of 29,30,31 as we went through 200m I was a couple of meters behind the leaders so I was probably somewhere in the region of 31-32 seconds and in touch w/ the pack,no running in no mans land always a plus over any distance but essential in the two laps of an 800m
63 seconds at the bell and a bit of jockeying for positon around the turn as I passed one runner and held off another at the top of the back stretch I'd have liked to have gone to my "go to move" from my repeats but that's the difference between a race where any number of situations can jump off and an interval session where you more or less dictate the outcome.
1.30-1.31-1.32 at 600m for the front of the pack,at a guess I was somewhere between 1.33-1.36.
Off the final turn I wasn't running flat out....but I was wasn't gassed either as I w/held the challenge of a would be 6th place finisher and crossed the line 6th in 2.09.59.

In terms of time I'm a little disappointed,I went 2.09.7 at Widener just over two weeks ago so I failed to improve any signifigent time on that,however in racing terms it had been a good performance and at the end of the day there's just no substitute for races it's as pure as it gets.
So 2.09.5 will be my seed time for Lisle.....not earthshattering by any stretch and potentially not good enough to get on the podium but in words of Coldplay "Everything's Not Lost" and I still have a few weeks to work on that,it'd be nice to lower that in Haywards Field in my next race.