| April 2002 Newsletter |
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Engman Explains It All (But Not To His Wife)
What a great deal! I invested two days of my life, drove about 800 miles, and spent almost $200 to reduce my year's best mile time by 3 whole seconds. The good news is that I am not married. A (non-running) spouse would say, "You spent all that time and money and didn't even WIN?"
Here's the whole story. One of the wonderful (awful) things about the National Masters Indoor Championships in Boston is that they post the entries on the web in advance. So, I had a 6-hour drive to ponder the fact that of the 12 entrants in the 55-59 age group, two had been previous champions, one had finished second and one, Harry Nolan, had turned 55 two days before the championships and had the fastest time of the group. Since I didn't have times for the rest of the group from previous championships, I thought I might be looking at a 10th place finish. How would a (non-running) spouse like that?
Once at the Reggie Lewis Center, I ran into Harry and gave him regards from Rick Hoebeke. Harry asked why Rick wasn't there. (I detour my race report to get on record that today, in front of witnesses, Rick said he would go to Nationals when he turns 55 in two years.)
Back to the race: I started from lane 2 and planned to start well under control for the first half and then push to the end. On the very first turn a guy tried to come into the first lane without adequate space. He was so close that I reached out with my bad (right) arm, which does not have normal extension, and still managed to push him almost out to lane 3. He took the hint and stayed there until he got adequate distance and then moved in.
I don't know why he was in such a hurry, as I passed him in the next lap and never saw him again. My first quarter was about 78, perfect, but then I must dogged the second quarter, putting me at 5:20 pace for the mile. I managed to pick it up, passed several more guys, but then looked up and had no one in sight. It has been like this all season- I seem to end up in the middle of nowhere, with no one to race with.
I finished 5 seconds behind the next guy ahead and 4 seconds in front of the guy behind. Placement wasn't bad -5th - in the time of 5:17. The luck of the draw comes into play at these events. I would have also placed fifth in the next youngest age group, 50-54. When I ran at Nationals three and four years ago, my times, 5:04 and 5:05, would have won this year's 50-54. Instead I placed 8th and 5th then. The current 55-59 is an incredibly talented and large cohort (just look at all the talented runners of that age group who have competed in the Ithaca area: Saylor, Conrad, Pempel, Prudhomme, Congdon, Bisogni, Miner, Block, Harrison, and others who don't immediately pop into mind -this will probably start some inter-generational debate!).
While I am reasonably happy with Nationals this year, my biggest accomplishment is finishing the year uninjured, the first time this has happened in several years.
So next year I'll be in better shape and run sub-5:15. I'm just happy I don't have to tell a (non-running) spouse that
-- Herb Engman
P.S. In addition to other locals mentioned in reports Caleb Rossiter
finished a great 4th in his age group in 5:10 and 8th in the 800 with a
2:19. As I have proven, you don't have to be a super speedster to enjoy
Nationals -let's get a bigger group together next year.
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