5,000m race report (and a 1,500)

This was my first masters track meet. "Masters"? Yup, masters running or "veteran running" starts at 30 here. In fact, the Girl xould run because she is born in 1979 and will turn 30 this year.

I was going for a 16:40, which is exactly a 5:20 mile. At the gun, I tried to find my favorite spot in any track race (second place). That lasted about half a lap, after which I went to the front. The first half mile was run in 2:44, so 4 seconds slow. I pushed the pace and one guy hung on. Maybe we could work together, I thought. One of his teammates shouted at him "you're on perfect pace. Just stay there. Don't do any work." With that, I started to try to shake him off. There was a pretty stiff wind down the backstrecth. Three times in a row, I would accelerate off the curve onto the backstretch, so he had to close a little gap in the headwind. The third time, he fell off the back.

The whole race, my time was hovering around 16:40. With half a mile to go, I realized I needed a 2:35, which was doable. My time was 16:38. I am satisfied but not thrilled. The upward curve is still looking like faster times are ahead.

The 1500m was just fun. One guy, who supposedly medaled at the masters world championships took off like a rocket. The rest of us stuck in a pack. I was, seriously, in second place (in that pack) for the first three laps. Then I found my old kick and got 50 yards on the third place guy. A cheap, but fun, way to run a race.

Then I ran a 300m leg in a 1000m relay (100 + 200 + 300 + 400). It wasn't pretty.

Will post some pictures later, including one of the Girl in the starting blocks before her quarter mile debut. She won't want me to post a report from that race but I might anyway.