Running,is a bit like the Priesthood,it's a calling,a vocation and it's for life,it's not for everyone,I can see where non runners look at what I do and say"it's not for me" Saturdays 11 hour round trip to and from New York City on a bus and Subway for 2 mins,13 seconds worth of work underlines that......
Needing an 800m race b4 the upcoming Masters Nationals I rolled the dice w/ the USATFNY C'ships Saturday at Icahn Stadium for a two lap tune up,having seen the seed times at last Sundays Eastern Regional C'ships I'm glad I went w/ this meet.....NOT that there was much comfort and joy at these C'ships as there were 19 sub 2.00 guys in the field #thosewerethedays circa 07/08
Anywho I needn't worry about the studs as were put in two heats of "open" leaving 10 "old farts" aka Masters runners to duke out their own heat.
Even then you had an uneven field:
Jonevan Hornsby 35-39 1.57.00
Sherman Lau 40-44 2.01.00
Matt Chaston 45-49 2.07.00
Yours Truly 50-54 2.10.00
John Affleck 50-54 2.20.00
Noel Haynes 65-69 2.32.00
Patrick Viola 65-69 3.00.00
Oh well too late now it was gonna be what it was gonna be,w/ the deadline for Masters Nationals entries this Thursday at midnight this was my one shot at an 800m seed time,and if it didn't pan out I had the luxury of last summers 2.09.81 in my back pocket if needbe I'm NOT getting screwed like I did last year w/a non seeded heat.
Great! no Wi Fi on the bus upto NYC at 11am......but at least the rain helped w/ passing the 2 hours as I took an inpromptu nap....
Funny thing about the rain, when I wrote my Outdoor schedule in late March/early April I didn't legislate for rain period muchless in my mid June meets but here it was,oh well!
Thankfully by the time I arrived in Midtown at 1.20pm it had stopped and by the time I exited the Subway at 103rd & Lexington Ave to take the 103rd St bridge to Randall's Island and Icahn Stadium it was just grey and overcast.
Funny to think of this as not only my first Outdoor NYC meet this year.....but also my only one,w/ it being a World Championship year the dynamics have altered to accomodate that,fingers crossed I'll be back in 12 weeks time for 5th Avenue Mile,but that's a ways off yet.
Arrived at Icahn by 2.45pm some 50 mins b4 gun time,enough time to check in and get my hip and chest numbers,heat #3 lane #2 ans warm up and stretch.
The game plan was to try and latch onto Matt Chaston and work off of him given he was a 2.07 but once the stagger broke Jonevan,Sherman and Matt were "off to the races" w/ me trying to reel them in.
I felt strong on the opening 400m and went through the bell in 64 seconds which based off my training is where I felt I should be but sadly the gap between Matt and me and then me and John in 5th meant I was more or less in "no mans land".
4th in 2.13.6 NOT something I'd like to repeat in 4 weeks time when I next lace em up over 800m at Nationals but at least then it'll be a level playing field w/ all 50-54 runners,I still have four weeks of training and two mile races to help get me sharper and quicker to hopefully add to my 800m Outdoor Nationals tally of 1 Gold 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze in Jacksonville.
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