Good first outing - UPDATED

photo: start of the women's 55m

Updated:
Although I suspect problems with the timing, I feel it is unsportsman-like to blame the timer for not achieving my goals. The post below was written when I was pissed and I feel I need to make a retraction.

I need to own my times: 58.93 400m, 26.16 200m. Dissapointing and likely accurate. Minus 0.5 sec per 200m for indoor track .... these values would convert to 57.93 and 25.66 for outdoor track... very close to the times I ran in my last outdoor races. The fact that I've only been seriously training (3 days a week) for a month, I should not have expected much more. Plus I have very little experience running indoor 200 and 400 races. I ran 26.30 in IN last year in my last indoor meet, my only indoor 200m.

So, bottom line, these times are plausible... and hey I beat 2 guys in my heat, 6 others overall. Some were 17 yr old highschool seniors from an Atlanta track club, kids one-third my age.

Anyway, one thing that led me to believe the timing was suspect is that in the last 3 heats, there were some exceptionally slow times for a college meet. I'll leave my previous angry post of yesterday up even though I now disavow it:

________________________

The trouble was apparent when all the result sheets were posted - except the Mens 400m. I asked the timer about it and he said there was some problem.

I ran a good race. I led the entire race until the final turn and finished second in my heat. The meet clock stops when the winner crosses the line. The winner in my heat crossed with a time that displayed 55.65 or something like that. I was 5 meters behind him - max. The winner of my heat, Kevricq Collins is a 23.3 200m sprinter. The time they gave him on the sheet was 57.+ and me 58.9 something - no way! The meet clock was 2 whole seconds off the official clock? I thought I ran no slower than 56.9. The meet clock had not changed to 57 when I crossed the line. I was so pissed and tired after the 400m, I ran my 200m and left. Didn't even stay to get my time, which I doubt was real good because I was pretty tired. The winner of my 200 heat beat me by about 15m and the meet clock said 22.+ for his time.

On the positive side ... I'm HEALTHY!!! No injuries or strains. Slightly sore in the hip flexors but the hams, abs, and groin are great. I'm 139 lbs and ready to burn some track... after about 2 days of recovery.

I saw Dean Hayes and he said he'd let me into the MTSU meet in 2 weeks. Maybe I'll stick with the 400m and 200m. I am itching to run the 55m. We'll see.