56.65 - 400m
25.30 - 200m
It was a nasty hot day at Birmingham Southern College. Mid 90ºs and humid. A decent track and light winds. Because of the heat, I did a minimal warmup and went inside the stadium building to take shelter from the heat before my 400m. I had lane six in a heat with mostly faster guys in their 20s, 30s, and 40s. However, Paul B. - the only other M55 in my heat, was to my outside in lane 7, which was a great help to me. I got an ok start and made up the stagger on Paul before 100m and didn't see him again. Tom H. was nice enough to read off splits at the 200m mark. My 200m split was right on target, about 25 high - 26. I felt a whole lot more comfortable coming down the stretch in this one compared to last week, when the entire heat left me. It was still exhausting but I really only tightened up in the last 10m or so. I'm thinking it's now within the realm of possibility to once again break 56. This was my fastest 400m since April 8, '17, and faster than I ran at Nationals (LSU) and in Toronto (NCCWMA).
The 200m was a fiasco. I feel I got robbed by a tenth, (which would have been a world lead) because they had 2 finish lines marked several meters apart, and I leaned at the wrong one. The first 'finish line' was a very prominent bright white piece of tape that was actually the finish for some old man's hurdle race (or something) and the real finish line, a much less prominent faded white line about 5m further, which I coasted across. Immediately after the race, when the officials saw what happened, they removed the tape. I was in a very tight race with an M52 guy, Dexter. I thought I got him at the line, but it was the wrong line, and since I slowed just before the end, he got me in 25.18. Still, 25.30 is faster than I ran LSU and Toronto, and... after a 400m.
So, it was a good outing. Happy to see Jack, Dwayne, Don, Paul S. and Paul B. there. Not sure how I'll feel tomorrow, but I felt good enough after the race to take a 3 mile walk along the river. The feet are doing ok. I'm definitely light, was 142.7 after a shower.
I'm hoping by tomorrow evening I can do a training session, a hard one Tues, speed on Thurs, and race Sat. It's coming along .... I'm in pretty decent shape considering Nationals is still 7+ weeks away, and I'm beginning to think about going to Spain.
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