Track is Wasup

Yeah, track has now startedYeah, track has started since last time I have blogged and so far it is going ok. Our first track meet was this Monday at Wartburg College in Waverly. Their facilities are extremely new and very nice, but like all track meets this early in the year, everyone is slow and they are on an indoor track. Indoor tracks are 200 meters around while the normal track is 400 meters, so it messes with your head a little bit. I run mainly 800’s and 400’s, so instead of running 2 laps and 1 lap races, I ran 4 laps and 2 lap races, which definitely messes with your race. It messes up your strategy because you are not sure when to conserve your energy and when to go all out and pass other racers to finish. Also another aspect of an indoor track that is annoying when running is that the turns are much sharper than a normal track and when running the turns I could feel my feet slide all the way to the right in my shoes, and it felt that I was on the verge of tripping.

We got out of class at 12:15 that day, 2 minutes before my class got out for lunch which meant that I had the privilege of eating on the bus there. It also meant that we would arrive at the meet at 2:15, approximately five and a half hours before my first race was to start. For some reason, that morning I had decided it was more important to get to school five minutes earlier than I would have if I had chosen to pack myself a snack for the long track meet. Fortunately my dad showed up and took me out to subway because I had so long until my first race.

We cam back and it turned out that they were and hour ahead of schedule, but I still had plenty of time to get ready for my event. I warmed up and then ran my 800 in a decent time. Afterwards, though, I was dead tired and could feel my heart beat pump through my entire body as I struggled to get up and make my way to the bleachers, where we were sitting. I tried to rest my legs and try to prepare for my 400 that was coming up, but I didn’t have enough time. The meet was significantly over an hour ahead of schedule and that meant less rest for me so I completely got dominated by the 400 and finished with an extremely poor time. My first race gave me hope for this season and that I might be able to do well in the season to come.