Arrived at The Armory by 6.15pm giving me 45 mins to stretch and warm up and say my hellos,I must say by nites end I felt like I was in my own episode of "Cheers" where everybody knows your name.....it felt good that I could be away for 17 months and be made to feel so welcome,and while my recent musical taste has been that of a more classic rock/heavy metal by nites end I was singing the Linkin Park classic "Somewhere I Belong" as it felt right to be back in my racing gear w/ my running spikes on my feet.
I was drawn in heat four of the five 1,000m w/ a seed time of 3.10 which I felt was acurate if not a little generous,I harbored ambitions of going sub 3.00 but wasn't sure how doable that was,given my lack of racing in almost a year and a half,not to mention no speed work in almost 10 weeks and not quite 2 weeks of training under my belt........faint heart never won fair{Iron}maiden........
I'm not sure how many of us lined up in #4 I thought it was meant to be 14 but only 11 of us finished I was #10 and got the end of the starting line while a few runners were lined up in the box on the first turn.
Got a good reaction to the gun and got a clean start and got out into lane two coming off the turn and in 5th down the back straight b4 moving into 3rd coming up the home straight.
35 seconds at 200m,I was hoping to average 35s all the way which would equate toa 2.55 1,000m and more importantly a 4.40 mile but that's down the road some.
1.10 at 400m by now it was a three man race I was oblivious to whatever was unfolding behind me but quite honestly only worried about what ws going on in front of me.
1.47 at 600m a 37 second lap,w/ repeats on tap in the coming weeks I'm confident holding 35 second 200m pace is w/in my range.
2.24 at the bell another 37 200m but I'd moved into 2nd w/ 300m to go,while I may lack the strength and speed right now at least what the body lacks the head and heart make up for.......
I couldn't close the gap on the leader who would eventually win the heat in 2.53.0 and the 3rd place runner returned himself to 2nd w/ 100m to go he eventually clocked 2.58.1 to my 2.59.6 as I closed in 35 seconds.
3rd in 2.59.6 I had no place to complain all things considered and will take great heart from this debut.
The inevitable questions I had coming in had been answered and w/ the clock still ticking on Hartshorne(2 weeks} and Indoor Nationals{9 weeks} I feel by adding some much needed speed work into my weekly 30 mile a week training I can improve on Thursdays minorly successfully return to the track.
By default I'd earnt a pr as this was my first ever 1,000m race and also by default I'd earnt a club record for the masters 1,000m although I do feel any number of our stable of 40-49 800m/1,500m runners could reduce that time.....that said I hope in a years time if and when Thursday Nite @ The Races features another 1,000m I'd be in sharper form.
As for my 2 miler it was more of a training run I had time to kill b4 my bus back to Philly at 11.10pm and frankly waiting around to run the 600m after the 2miles felt like too long between races,maybe I'd have done better w/ that as I trailed in dead last in heat 2 w/ a 11.59.3,the winning time in heat 3 was 12.00.5 so maybe I was just unlucky to get lumped into heat 2 but like I said it was basically a training run and a way to kill time b4 heading back to midtown to catch the bus.
Next stop Ithaca and the Hartshorne Memorial Masters Mile,have spikes{and an invitation}will travel!!!!
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