Two Track Meets and a Road Race
I began my weekend on a bike supporting an area road race. It was a five mile race, some of the race coverage can be found here: Race Results and Mike Kerwick's Personal Story. After this race, I grabbed my son from my parents, spent a little time with by sister and brother-in-law, and went to a local sub shop for lunch, then headed over to a serious regional track meet which my club runs. Blustery winds made conditions tough, and the $1000 bonuses for a sub-4:00 mile (men) of sub-4:30 (women) were not awarded. The men's field saw a big group of athletes go well under 4:10 (I think several slid in uder the 4:05 mark) and on the women's side, local favorite Erin Donahue beat an Ethiopian woman who had been in the area to race last week at the Reebok meet in NYC. I think they broke 3:40. We finally arrived home at about 10:00 PM.
Sunday began with me unloading the bike from the car, then repacking the coolers, and heading off on an hour-and-a-half trip to the Junior Olympic meet. My son was to run the 1500 and 800. Unfortunately, departure delays combined with getting lost at the end of the trip resulting in our walking into the meet as his 1500 was going on, so he missed it. Perhaps being fresher meant that his 800 would be better. He had qualified by running a 3:42 (he's 7) and trying to get out a bit quicker resulted in his setting a big PR, by running a 3:18.56. Both races were won by the same kid, who lives only about 20 minutes away. He ran a 5:42 1500m and a 2:51 800m. I met both his parents, they don't seem to be the overbearing stage parent types. He seems like a nice young kid who his mom says just "loves to run." He's just a few months older than my son, and can easily see them duking it out come high school track.
It's nice to see the kids coming up through these kinds of programs. I will say that some of the parents shouting onto the track are sometimes a little scary. Mostly the kids get it. I didn't see any trash-talking, but did see lots of work going on with skills, relay teams practicing passing the stick, young kids practicing their start positions (and having their friends critically appraise them).
Sunday began with me unloading the bike from the car, then repacking the coolers, and heading off on an hour-and-a-half trip to the Junior Olympic meet. My son was to run the 1500 and 800. Unfortunately, departure delays combined with getting lost at the end of the trip resulting in our walking into the meet as his 1500 was going on, so he missed it. Perhaps being fresher meant that his 800 would be better. He had qualified by running a 3:42 (he's 7) and trying to get out a bit quicker resulted in his setting a big PR, by running a 3:18.56. Both races were won by the same kid, who lives only about 20 minutes away. He ran a 5:42 1500m and a 2:51 800m. I met both his parents, they don't seem to be the overbearing stage parent types. He seems like a nice young kid who his mom says just "loves to run." He's just a few months older than my son, and can easily see them duking it out come high school track.
It's nice to see the kids coming up through these kinds of programs. I will say that some of the parents shouting onto the track are sometimes a little scary. Mostly the kids get it. I didn't see any trash-talking, but did see lots of work going on with skills, relay teams practicing passing the stick, young kids practicing their start positions (and having their friends critically appraise them).
posted by Scooter at 9:14 AM
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