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FLRC Newsletter - Mar 2004 |
| 1500 | |
So, while most everyone else stopped doing mile speed work after Hartshorne, the threesome of Saylor, Myette and Engman thought it would be fun (advanced age explains this faulty logic in John and me, but Suzy is still a young 46) to extend the season to run the 1500 in the February FLRC meet. The reasoning further deteriorated when we decided that since the 1500 is about 100 meters shorter than the mile, we could lower the pace from 41 second laps to 40-second ones. Besides, 40 seemed like such a ice, round number and far easier to remember (all 0s at the 100 meter marks).
Adding to my usual addled state at a race, I took a rest room break before the last scheduled heat before ours and emerged from the stairs to see John and Suzy lined up at the start of a 1500 heat. I raced down the backstretch to the start before I realized that they were just doing a warm up 200 behind the heat. I still think it was a clever plan to take the speed out of my legs before we even started.
At the real start of our heat, John, ever the gentleman, said he would set the pace ( besides I suspect he didn't trust Suzy or me after Tuesday's speed, when the plan called for 80 second 400s and Suzy popped a 77 on her lead and I followed with a 78 on mine. Needless to say, John hit 80s on the ones he led).
After the start Suzy, not being a gentleman, wouldn't let me in to the inside lane, so I ran awhile in the second lane before squeezing in (me not being a gentleman either). John did his usual incredible job of pacing, taking us through the first few laps on 40 second pace. At about the half we realized we were suddenly a couple seconds off pace.
After the race we reasoned (as best oxygen-deprived runners can) that we had been hearing zeros, but they were probably zero point something and the point somethings all of a sudden added up to 2 seconds. There is probably a name for this phenomenon that the math wizards like Rick Cleary know. In any case, I decided we needed to pick up the pace and made another (to add to the Hartshorne 3) pathetic attempt to pass John, but he also had picked it up and I tucked back in. We then zipped along pretty nicely and finished close, in a 5:01 - 5:05 range. Adding 21 seconds for the 100 meters+ distance of the mile, the 1500 represented a substantial improvement over our 5:30 - 5:35 miles at Hartshorne. It would be logical to adjourn the indoor season on this high note, but after the race we reasoned that if in the March meet we ran the mile laps to hear 39s, then we wouldn't lose 2 seconds by the half....
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