Weekend In New England

Big shout out to Ocean Eversley for the starting line photo from Saturday's race,hip #s were given alphabetically ergo the line up{Burdett,Cakouros,Elliot,Fitzpatrick,meself,Lemme,Kern,Livingston,Millner,apologies to the rest of the field who didn't make the photo}

When planning my indoor season in late Nov/early Dec this was a race I considered but wasn't sure if the logistics ie $$$ would allow a trip to Boston,however kudos to Francis Burdett and Armando Oliveria for the ride up and back to Boston via New York.
We arrived at Reggie Lewis by 4.30pm and had 25 mins b4 being called to the athletes holding area,conditions outside Reggie Lewis were more a kin to the TD Bank Center when the Bruins have a home game so Francis and I jogged around the gym for 10 mins b4 making out way to the holding area behind the media area.
The mood was lighthearted as we stripped down to race gear and took to the track for our warm up,of the 17 man field I knew/had raced 7 of the field and had recently befriended Dave Millner a few days pre race.

Leading up to the race I had visualized two race plans,one w/ Charlie Kern in the field,one w/out as there were conflicting reports as to if he was running,turned out he was but my hopes of being able to get close enough to him to be pulled along to a fast time proved as optimistic as Krystal Forscutt being my valentine next week!!!
I did get a good reaction to the gun which in a 17 man field proved crucial and dispite a little bumping going in to the first turn I emerged on the back straight where I wanted to be.
35 seconds at 200m and I think 65 at 400m.
Charlie Kern had taken out the race at breakneck pace w/ only Lance Elliott able to go w/ him and Tom Nohilly just behind followed by Keven O Neil,Sean Livingston,Jason Cakouros and myself,as best as I remember I came through 800m in 2.14.

At some point Kent Lemme went by me dropping me to 8th on his way to 5th place but to be honest the laps and splits were just rolling by,I recall 4.00 at the bell and knew it was time to go,finding another gear I moved back in to 7th coming off the bottom turn as I overtook Jason Cakouros but was unable to close the gap on 6th place Sean Livingston,7th in 4.33.0.
A mild improvement on Jan 6th's 4.33.7. and my 13th fastest mile of all time, last year I didn't clock a 4.38. mile till Indoor Nationals at the end of March so I'm ahead of schedule based on last year.

Post race I managed a mile cool down w/ Charlie,Lance and Keven b4 enjoying the rest of a cracking track meet,it was neat to be a part of such an event,I hope we put on a good race for the fans,it was fun to run it trust me.
Post meet a group of us got together for dinner,nothing like a good burger and a few iced teas and alot of laughs,masters track....it's a bit like the priesthood,once you're in you're in for life!