Sunset Summer Classic Meet report / Schedule

Redemption from last weeks bad performance.  

Another M60 World leading time: 57.49 - matching my last year's WL.  

At Wheeler High School in Marietta,  a 6 lane black track, not great but not bad... although not what you'd expect from the high school of 2 Olympic Gold Medalist alumni: Aries Merritt (110H), and Reggie Witherspoon (4x400m).  

The Saturday night all-ages meet started at 4:30pm, and I got there at 4:15.  I thought I'd be done by 6:30 but the meet was dragging on very slowly.  Lot's of kids.  Then, a pounding rain storm hit about 5:30, closing the stadium, and forcing a 90 min rain delay.  I got back in the stadium at 7:15, and warmed up again.  Walking around a lot, trying not to get tight.  They were doing the races from youngest to oldest, so my heat of the 400m was the very last heat of countless 400m heats.  

I didn't race until almost 9:30 pm, and I have to say, despite the wet track, I really loved the conditions.  Cool, no wind, dark, under the stadium lights, lane 4.  I really much prefer racing at this time in the evening than I do in the morning.  

They ran the masters and open together, 2 heats combined into 1.  It was just me, a 23 yr old guy and Tom, a 78 yr old who has the WL time in the M75 400.   

I was surprised the 23 yr old didn't pass me right away.  I didn't see him until midway through the last turn.  I felt pretty good at the 300m mark, and ran a decent home stretch, not rigging until the last 20m or so, which is good.  The 23 yr old beat me by several meters, but I knew it was a decent run, I didn't feel whipped.   

The big difference in this meet for me was weight and a good hard 4 day week of training.  Last week at Atlanta, I weighed about 143.5 lbs.  This weekend, I was 138.5 lbs.  The 5 lbs made a big difference.  Sean said everyone was complaining about their time at Atlanta Relays, no one seemed to run well. Maybe the wind.  Unfortunately, Atlanta relays dumped their entire results to Masters Rankings, so I'm stuck with that 59 time on my record.  Wish I could erase it.  

After my race, it started raining again, it actually felt great.  After the meet, I met Roya for 'paella del mar para dos' at a nice latino place.  The rain had stopped and we were able to dine outdoors. 

Photos:

I saw Sean there, he was waiting on his M35 4x100 team, trying to increase their WR, but apparently there was a no show.  I didn't see him after the rain delay.  

Spoke with Tom, the lean and fit 78 yr old who has been a prolific racer this season.  He came all the way from London, KY to race.  He ran a 74 and got a tremendous ovation from the crowd coming down the home stretch.  He was by far the oldest competitor.  

Schedule:

Today is a training day and I'll be training in Atlanta at Marist this evening.  I have an opportunity to race in Louisville on Tuesday, yes, day after tomorrow.  This will be the FIRST meet on a newly opened track at the Norton Center, adjacent to their new indoor facility.   In all, this is a $53 million facility.   just wish it weren't 250 miles away.   Tuesday is an evening meet, so I could show up and just run the 200m.  Long way to go... 500 miles to race for 25-26 sec.  I'll decide last minute, depending on weather and how I feel.   I had planned to race the 200m this coming weekend in ATL.