First of all, congrats to Jamie D. on winning the Mizuno Mezamashii Project shoes! Thank you to everyone who entered. I really wish I could give everyone free shoes. I LOVED reading the Haikus especially. Some of them were pretty hilarious.
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Sarah and I have spent a while talking about how we want to run fast this summer. Not fast like 10k fast. Fast like track meet fast.
Which required finding a track meet.
You know...like this one:
So Chiara, Kristina, Sarah and I drove up to Redondo in hopes of track glory. Except the fact that Chiara ran 24 miles that morning (I KNOW...CRAZY!!!), and I had a little too much fun the night before. And by a little I mean a lot. (It was totally worth it).
And looked.
Surely this can't be where the meet is?
I'm not sure if South Bay track just played an unfunny joke on all of us, but there was no one there. I tried to get some dudes that were playing football to race us in the mile, but to no avail.
So we did what any four totally sane girls would do. We ran a 4x800 anyways.
And instead of passing a baton we high-fived.
Kristina started us off with a solid 2:46 and handed onto Sarah who ran the same time. Both pretty great given that we were randomly time trialing ourselves and this was the first 800 they'd ever run. I don't know what Chiara ran but I'm pretty sure it's faster than anything anyone should run after running 24 miles.
I "anchored" a 2:47 with an 80 second first lap. That's a pretty sorry second lap. I thought it was an ok time given that it's only 2 seconds off my high school PR until I looked up what I ran on McMillan. Turns out...not such a great time comparatively to other distances. But it did lead to a discussion of a new product that could revolutionize the world of running:
HUNGOVER MCMILLAN CALCULATOR!!! Are you listening, Greg?
Not only do I need a hungover McMillan calculator, I need one for being sick, for being tired, overtrained, etc. I'm telling ya, we may have just revolutionized the world of running. Lame excuses now factored into all calculations!
Yessssss.
Anyways, we finished up our 4x800 "relay" with a couple laps of a cool down and my lungs were still burning like they haven't in years. It felt good to run a little faster, even if we were just time trialing ourselves.
As we drove back down to the OC, we talked about doing more time trials on Track Party Tuesdays. Which brings me to my next question: Would anyone be interested in participating in an informal track meet? I'd love to put one on if I can figure out the logistics.
I'll make you medals out of construction paper and give you lots of high fives.
Let me know! I'm pretty sure it would be ridiculously fun.
I'lllll comeeeeee!!!
ReplyDeletejust wanted to let you officially know that i will not be attending... ever.
ReplyDeletehowever if you refuel afterwards anywhere, i will be there for that.
What if I give you an extra high five?
DeleteThat sounds pretty fantastic. I'd like to get faster myself (as in 5K fast) and have gone to the track once or twice, but I really need to go at least once a week. If I lived even remotely close I would totally join but unfortunately I'm on the East Coast.
ReplyDeleteUm. I'd come, but be pretty useless. But I can bring the kid, too, which might be fun, for her to see that runners are pretty rad.
ReplyDeleteI can man an aid station or something.
If I was in California I would be there in a second!
ReplyDeleteI keep saying I want to run more track races, so I've done a few 3000m and a few 5000m but I've run one 800m so far. I'm pretty sure I ran 2:45, with an 80-85 second first lap! That second lap was brutal. I'd also ran a 1500m about 30 minutes before, and I swear the lactic acid hit me like a truck all at once. Fun stuff.
sounds like fun!! I'm in!! :))
ReplyDeleteI'd be in!
ReplyDeleteMy ex-grad program (feels weird to write that) has been doing a relay for the past couple of years. Last year we did a 4x400 relay. It was so much fun training -- okay, once a week "speed" workouts -- and getting lessons on how to properly hand off a baton from a random runner on the track. He seemed legit and was super helpful. We had runners of all abilities, speeds and experiences. The higher ed students and some faculty come out to cheer before going to a happy hour. Our team lost, but people still talk about how I closed a 200m gap and almost got our team the win.
Too bad I'm the only old chick in our relay because tomorrow is the Chuck McMahon masters track meet in San Marcos (12 years running, so I expect it to actually happen). But you have to be 30+. So I decided I would see how much I want to stab myself by running the 5000m. I remember thinking 8 laps was forever in HS. So 12.5 should feel like an eternity.
ReplyDeleteAnwyay, there are a bunch of other weeknight track meets (USATF, legit ones) in San Diego open to all ages, but weeknights are not really convenient for your OC runners.