:: 1/5/08 ::

This past weekend I competed in Seattle in the DMR and 800m. I ran the 400 leg of the DMR and we won over Oregon and Stanford in a time of 9:33. I got the baton almost neck and neck with Oregon but settled into second for the beginning of the leg. 100 meters later Stanford's 400 leg, a pale goofy looking guy with weird sunglasses flew by both me and Chad Barlow of Oregon. I laughed to myself as he flew by because he looked like he was going out in 21 flat for the first 200. Barlow and I both passed him with 150 meters to go although the Stanford guy did hold on better than I thought. I handed off to Brandon Shaw who ran against an Oregon guy with one shoe and the race was over when our miler, WIll Leer, go the baton on anchor.

Now on a side note on that race... the pale white guy with a red boufont haircut and giant orange sunglasses....(see pic to right). I really hope that when I started wearing sunglasses when I raced that I didn't look like that. If I did I apologize to anyone that had to watch. But kudos to him for having the balls to go out hard and not completely die.

See the DMR race video here

I ended up splitting somewhere between a 46.6 and a 47.4 depending on whose watch you look at. I do think that a little faster than what my leg muscles were ready for at this point in my training. My hamstrings and calves held up well but that night and the next day I was just generally pretty tired. I slept for almost 10 hours that night and woke up feeling like I needed closer to 14 to feel refreshed. After my morning run I did feel quite a bit better but still a little 'sleepy' tired.

:: 800m Opener ::

This was my first 800 race of the season and as I talked about in my last blog I wanted to qualify for indoor nationals in 3 weeks in Boston, MA. I finished .17 seconds under that qualifying standard so I was happy about that. But had I been .17 seconds over the standard it probably would have been a really bad weekend for me. My heat had 10 or so people in it and I went straight to the back off the gun. I can't really tell you why I did that, I just wasn't thinking and let it happen. So in the back of the pack of 10 I just kept thinking, "this is not good, this is not good." With 200 meters to go I was still in last but was starting to wake up from my non-chalant running from the back. I started moving coming off the turn and had alot left in that last straight. I weaved in and out of some people and got up to 6th where I finished in 1:50.03.

See the 800m race video here

I was really happy to get the qualifying mark because that means I won't have to go back to Seattle in 2 weeks and I can focuse on the indoor national meet in 3 weeks in Boston. I also have to give kudos to my house mate Jeff as he PR'd in the 800m with a 1:49.75 and the entire OTC team for a really good showing at the meet and to RunnerSpace for great coverage of the meet.

:: Closing Thoughts ::

As I'm sitting here writing this I was disappointed to see Obama not win the California primary. I'm not sure how things will turn out but I hope he comes back for the win over the next couple months.