Summer D - Week 2

It was a hot one (low 90s) for tonight's second summer decathlon event, but we had a great time anyway. I took all 3 of my kids plus one of Lincoln's best friends, Alec. The kid's barely 12 and has run a 20:25 5K already!

Tonights event: the 800M. They ran it in 5 heats, from slowest to fastest. Raeann went in a slow heat and did quite well despite the heat and any real running in the past few weeks. Lincoln went out in the middle heat and did awesome! He's 11 and is really starting to cover some ground with his strides as he gets bigger. He recently ran a 3:33 800M in school. Given the heat tonight, he was going to be happy with anything in the 3:30s. He kicked it in in 3:34. He looked good all the way through!

I ran in the second to last heat, along with Lincoln's friend Alec. He shot ahead right at the start and I never really saw him after that. I've run the 800M each of the last 3 years, getting times ranging from 2:41 to 2:42. (Big range, huh?) Given the really lousy mile I ran last week and the high temps tonight, I was bracing for something over 2:50. I was genuinely afraid of how bad it might be tonight. Well, no worries as it turned out. I took the first 100 fast, as I had wanted, taking advantage of the fact that I was one of the few wearing spikes in my heat, and then I settled into a steady pace. At 200M is usually where I feel horrible when I run this distance. Tonight, not so bad. I stayed steady through the first lap, and I was pleasantly pleased to find that my lap split was right where I was hoping it might be -- 80 or 81 seconds. I knew I should be able to do that for the first lap, but I figured that then I'd be pretty well spent. But the nice thing was that I didn't feel spent! I tried to hold my pace through the next turn, then tried to pick it up. Well, although I wasn't dead, I also wasn't quite running as fast as the first lap. Going into the final turn I started my kick, passing a woman that I'd been shadowing up until then. There was a huge gap from there to the next runner, but I cut that gap in half during the homestretch, putting a little distance behind me, too. Finished in 2:45. Maybe a few seconds off my PR, but it felt strong, and I had a little bit left at the end. I could have started my kick earlier and maybe shaved a little more time. I'm getting back to where I want to be!

Alec ran a sweet 2:40, BTW!

After the final heat of the 800 came the kids run. And Skylar just tore up the track! I'm convinced she may have the most talent in the family.

Then came the relays! We got into teams of 3 (based on our 800 times to even things out) and then ran relays where each runner on each team ran a 1200, then an 800, and then a 400, in that order. My son ran the workout too, which was really cool for me. As it worked out, I was our team's first runner and Lincoln was his team's first, so we toed the line together. He's not shy about trash talking either! Well, I won the first battle by beating him soundly in the 1200 (I had our team in 2nd out of 8 teams at that point). By the time my turn came around again for the 800, he had a good 50 yard head start on me. I eventually caught up to him, ran very briefly with him, and then kicked ahead. For the final leg, the 400, he had a similar head start. I ran it hard and gained on him - and he knew I was back there - but with only 1 lap to work with I couldn't make up the gap. I burned a good 1:21 for that last lap, but he still had me by a few seconds. Of course, then I really heard it from him about how he beat me in the end! We followed that up with Italian ice at Rita's. Fun times! I'm really looking forward to the next few years of sharing running with him.