This Sunday race is part of the USATF-MN Team Circuit and was also part of a bigger USATF-MN Championship track meet. This would be the first time I’ve raced on a track since I graduated from college in 2003. It brought back a flood of memories from the tons of track meets that I competed in during junior high, high school, and college. It was in the low 60’s but with pretty high humidity the weather wasn’t exactly perfect for a race. The race was held at Hamline University’s Klas Field. The 9-lane mondo track was well used the weekend as the MSHSL Championships (Minnesota State High School League) were held there over the weekend.

We did a warm-up and then sat around and waited. The officials weren’t really in too much of a hurry and the meet was behind schedule pretty much from the beginning. It opened with a 5K race walk with 2 competitors before the women’s 5K and then the Men’s Master’s 5k. The Men’s Open 5K was next followed by a 3 person heat of the 100m hurdles and then the 1500.

One highlight of the meet was that Carrie Tollefson competed in the 1500 trying to get her Olympic “A” standard. She need a 4:10 but ran a 4:19 – still an impressive showing. She had a rabbit pull her through 800 meters and then was left to finish by herself. There was a slight headwind on the homestretch. It was fun to watch her run and then to see her wait around to congratulate the rest of the runners! A couple of her Team USA – Minnesota teammates were there to cheer her on.

Back to my race! I went in with no expectations having done no speed work in a long time and having done a 10-miler the day before. I knew I was going to get lapped several times since my PR is 18 and change. But my team needed me to compete so that we could score – so I took one for the team!

I did some math and decided that I would try and run 90 second quarters which is a 6:02 pace and would translate to a 18:44 5K. So I thought I would try that and hopefully break 19 minutes. Sadly that didn’t happen. I was proud of myself for showing great restraint and not pushing the first quarter too hard. I was pretty much on pace through the first half of the race so that was good. A runner from the Slab City racing team came by and asked what I was hoping to run and said that is what he was planning. He offered to trade laps which sounded good with the slight headwind. It was 2 laps in when he went by so I sat behind him for 2 laps and then went around him, but he came back by after another lap and pulled away. I had started to drop the pace slightly by that point but only a second or two a lap!

Here are my 400 splits:

1. 1:23
2. 1:31
3. 1:31
4. 1:32 – 5:58 mile
5. 1:32
6. 1:34
7. 1:39
8. 1:42 – 12:27 through 2 miles (6:29 mile)
9. 1:39
10. 1:42
11. 1:42
12. 1:35 – 19:08 through 3 miles (6:38 mile)
13. 0:43 – last 200

If you aren’t familiar with a 5K on the track you start at the 200 meter mark and then run 12.5 laps. Each person/team or coach does the counting differently. Some people take the 200 off the beginning so that each mile is calculated at the finish line, while others do it the way I did and count it at the end. It was a little easier that way since they were calling out the time at the 200 mark.

Not a lot to report since it was round and round ya go! They didn’t have any water available which didn’t surprise me too much. It was an $8 entry and all I have to show for it is a plain bib! Some of the other guys got awards and some of the women’s team did too.

It was a good day all in all. Don’t think I would do it again unless I had done more specific training.

[tags] USATF-MN, 5000m Championships, Hamline [/tags]