BU Mini meet

BU Mini meet – I’ve done a few of these meets in the past and always enjoyed them.  They have a limited schedule of indoor track races and the meet is very popular.  The heats are set up based on whatever times people put in.  So as long as people are honest you’ll be in a heat and have folks to run with.  I was ahead of schedule coming back to running and felt that a 3,000 meter race would be a great chance to see where my fitness is.  I haven’t done any workouts so I had to guess where to seed myself.  I figured there was no way I could run under 10:15 (I ran 10:13 way back in January at the same meet) and I also felt I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t break 10:45.  I figured the safest thing to do would be to split the difference so I entered with a time of 10:30 (about 11:10 for 2 miles).

I got to the meet pretty early with a plan to do 4 miles on the outside warm-up lane and finish that warm-up at the start time for the first heat (10am).  At that point I’d find out my heat and then do a couple of more miles right before my race.  I got in 4 miles, and even had teammates Joe Shairs and Jim Pawlicki for a little bit of the run.  After that I found out I was in heat 5 which meant I had another 40 minutes or so until my race.  Perfect timing, I changed into race gear and flats and watched heat 1 & 2.  During heats 3 & 4 I put in another 2 miles including some strides.  I had enough time for some water (it was really warm and dry on the track) and then it was over to the starting line.

 

There were 20 runners I n the heat with times from 10:00 to 11:00, so it would spread out pretty well once we got going.  I wanted to hit 41 to 42 seconds a lap.  Off we went and most of the field was in front of me 100 meters into it.  That was fine as I hit the end of lap 1 in 41.8 right where I wanted to be.  I got a bit caught behind the fast starters who then slowed and ran laps of 42.9 and 42.4.  I wasn’t too worried and was feeling very good.  I just didn’t want to push too hard too early.  I did pass a couple of runners and slowly closed on the three Whirlaway runners (Craig Fram, Paul Hammon, and Heather Mahoney) who were 2 or 3 seconds up by ½ mile (2:48.8)  With my fastest lap at that point (40.4) I closed the gap and just before the mile went around them hitting the mile (actually 1600 meters) in 5:34.7.  I proceeded to run three low 41 laps and slowly broke away from the Whirlaway group.  With a half-mile to go I upped the tempo running laps of 40.6, 40.5, and 40.5 before getting to the bell lap.  I knew I was going to be under my seed time of 10:30 and pushed as hard as possible that last lap hoping to crack 10:20.  My 38.9 split brought me home just under with a 10:19.4.

 

I could not have been more pleased with the result!  I was only 6 seconds slower than I’d run at the beginning of the year but I’ve only been running for four weeks.  Definitely a good sign if I can stay healthy!  Indoor track is nerve wracking but also a heck of a lot of fun.  I love the constant feedback of splits every 40+ seconds.  I’m looking forward to at least a couple of more indoor races this season (if my body cooperates) with the goal being a good run at the Northeast Masters championships at the end of January.

 

Results of heat 5

1 Dwyer Grimes              9:58.6

2 Meagan Boucher          10:02.5

3 James Pawlicki                        10:04.0 CMS

4 Brian McNeice              10:08.4

5 Kevin Hill                     10:15.3

6 Eliza Lukens-Day          10:15.4

7 Dave Dunham              10:19.4 CMS

8 Heather Mahoney         10:24.1

9 Craig Fram                  10:26.9