USATF NE - Night at The Track

 At the last minute I added in a final race for 2022. David Westenberg (GLRR) contacted me about the masters 3,000 meters that would be part of the USATF-NE Night at The Track. Nat Larson would be shooting for the American Record in the 60-64 and Westenberg was going after the 65-69 record.  Larson ran a 16:30 on the roads a couple of months ago and Westenberg recently broke the 1 mile and the 1,500-meter records. I seeded myself at 10:20 which was pretty aggressive as that is equal to an 11:00 2 mile.  I had run an 11:02 at Chelmsford this year, but my best 3,000 time in the last 5 years was a 10:21 from 2017.  Realistically I thought I could run around 10:30, but racing at 8 p.m. might slow me down.

I headed to Boston after work and got a parking spot right in front of the track and settled in for a couple of hours of snoozing.  At 6 p.m. it was time to get moving, so I had a Coke and gathered up my gear.  The Track wasn’t nearly as busy as it was at the previous meet but it was still humming with activity.  I chatted a bit with long-time GLRR runner John Barbour and had a talk with Westenberg about his goals.  He’d take it out in around 41 seconds and then I’d take over and hopefully get him through the mile.  I went upstairs and got in a 3-mile warm-up (Scott Grandfield running the 4x1600 joined me for a bit).  The meet was moving along quickly and I had just enough time to do another mile in race flats and some strides.

 After a false start due to a misfire on the starting pistol we lined up and off we went for 15 circuits.  It did not feel comfortable and I found myself hanging on to Westenberg as we hit the ¼ in 82 and he kept it at 41’s.  I took over at 800 meters and was already struggling but figured I could get him to the mile.  I pulled into lane two and let him (and Mike McGrane – BAA) by on the inside as we passed the mile in 5:32.  I immediately dialed it back with my slowest lap of the day (over 45).  I felt a little better after that as Westenberg and McGrane put 3 seconds on me.  Westenberg dropped out a lap later with a glute issue and I slowly increased the tempo and McGrane came back into sight.  I wouldn’t catch him but managed to hold it together for a fourth place finish in 10:39.9.  Not exactly what I’d hoped for but all I had on that evening.