Track Meet #3

Even though it is Sunday, I am still so excited because of the results from the track meet yesterday!!

I did 55m Hurdles again (10.76 seconds), about the same time as last week but I managed to 3 step instead of 5 step. Every week its one more thing that is improved! Indoor is really nice because 55 meters goes by really QUICK where as for outdoor, 100m for hurdles now seems like a long way!!

I did long jump as well (4.53m) but I still am having trouble being consistent with my running approach. I just need to practice, practice, practice.

OK on to the good stuff (or at least I think so!)
THE 4x400m RELAY!!

I did my extended warm up like usual (1.5 miles plus strides after) but since there were 15 teams at this meet, every event took forever! We were in the first heat (the fast heat) running against a few of our big rival schools!

Abby ran this week as the first leg of the relay and she stayed right with the lead girl. It didn't look like she was pushing hard at all; at the last curve she sprinted and came in at the same time as the first place runner. I received that baton from Abby and beat the previously first place team (lets call them the Yellow Team) to the curve. The third place teams runner (lets call them the Blue Team) passed me again along the straightaway but I stayed right on her heels (and I mean that literally, I hit her spikes about 3-4 times the whole race). I was itching to pass her again but as I came across the 200m/start/finish line I could hear my coach. He said -

"Next straightaway"

That's all I needed to hear and I knew exactly what to do. It was like I was just running on instinct and pure desire. As we came to the straightaway (with about 130m left) I passed the girl from the blue team (the yellow team was in third place) and took over the lead. I knew I was pushing myself way beyond anything I had done before but I just did not want to let that girl beat me. I came off the last curve and everything just went blurry in front of me. After a few more steps everything came back into focus and I handed off the baton to the third runner.

I stumbled off the track and couldn't catch my breath. I leaned on a hurdle and all of a sudden my hamstrings and quads couldn't support my weight anymore and I sunk to the ground. Previously in other meets, I had been in pain after running the relay BUT nothing like this! It took me until well after the race was finished to recover. We ended up coming in 2nd overall with the Blue Team beating us (they over took the lead back during the 3rd leg and the yellow team came in third).

When I finally was able to walk over to my coach I found out my split -

63.84 seconds

I was in shock! I am just so happy that I ran that fast! The funny part is that Abby ran the EXACT same split as me (I know she can go faster though!) And the other funny part - I remember almost every moment of this race where as in previous relays everything just blurs together because it goes by so fast. The final time for our relay was 4:20.18 which is very good for this time in the season! We still have over 15 weeks to go till the end of the season!

Today I am sore in my legs and I am just taking it easy. The athletics website for my college had a picture of me from the hurdles yesterday but as it says my college name right across my running top I can't really share that (I look funny anyway!!) I am in the lab now trying to get my work done early this week so I don't stress out! I hope everyone is having a delightful weekend - Its actually about 30 degrees outside today, a wonderful change from the 3 degrees (feels like -15 degrees) it has been all week.