Steve - 1.25

Day 2 of my Corporate Track and Field event. I was told I would be running an 800 in a relay and a 400. It turns out they only needed me for an 800. The relay was a 200, 200, 400, 800. I wore my flats since I'm not sure I'm ready to wear spikes in an 800 yet. There were 5 teams running in this relay. I knew we would be way behind 1st when I got the stick but I was just hoping I would have some runners around me to pull me around. My goal for the 800 was to run <=2:15. I figured I should run 65, 70 on the 2 laps to accomplish that.

As the race progressed, we quickly fell into third place. Watching the runners come in, I saw that I was about 8 seconds or so behind second place once I finally got the baton. This gave me a nice rabbit to chase as I took the stick. I went right into my hard striding pace and started thinking about how awesome it would be to pass the guy in front of me (but not all at once of course). As I hit the straightaway after my 100 meters I was feeling good and felt like I had made up some ground. I continued to work hard down that stretch and by 200 meters I could tell I was closing in. Going around the curve, I continued to make up ground and hit the horrible straightway with a headwind. I could hear a few teammates cheering for me cuz they could see I was closing more on the 2nd place runner. Once we hit the bell lap I was only a few strides behind.

I glanced down at my watch quickly to see a split of 65, right on target. Now I just needed to sustain a similar energy level and I could pass the second place runner. Going around the curve, I tried to maintain the same gap. I figured I should go for the pass no sooner than the 200 meter mark. But once I got through that curve, the legs started getting heavy and the gap started to widen. The runner in front of me was either starting to kick and/or I was slowly down. I tried all I could to prevent myself from slowing down. Once I got to the 200 meter mark, I was behind by about 10-15 meters. I knew it was going to take a massive effort to make up the difference. I surged with all that was left but it wasn't much. I finished 6.5 seconds back of him, clocking a time of 2:21 (low). I figure I made up at least a second or two on him. But alas I didn't reach my goal on this day of 2:15. It will have to wait til another day.