On Monday (Apr 7), we traveled to Madison for a NHC League Meet against Madison and Caldwell. Like in the past few dual meets, James (VanderWiele) and I had the luxury of not having to go all out. We hung behind Madison’s top runner (Jack Anderson) for 6 laps of the 3200 then took off, placing 1-2 comfortably in 10:27-28. Freshman Conor Madison ran his first 3200 that day, clocking in at 11:36. After a pretty good season this past fall, we have high hopes for his future. James and I again took 1-2 in the 1600 and 800 as well, having to put much more effort into the 800 than anything else. Freshman Steve Boyd PR’d in the 1600, clocking in at 5:00.18, he’ll be sub 5 in no time which will go a long way towards our 4x1600 team winning a relay. Although on the distance side everything ran smooth as silk, we found out we once again lost to both teams, dropping our record to 0-4. However, this doesn’t really faze me or the others on the distance squad; we know our job and hope to have success in the near future in our core events.
Plagued by my lack of ability to crack the 4:40 barrier after numerous tries dating back to last Outdoor season, Coach (Rick Mullins) came up with a fantastic workout for Wednesday (Apr 9). After a short warm-up, we returned to the track for an 8x400 workout, first time we have ever done a workout of just 400s alone. However, there was a catch, our normal 200m rest was shortened to 100m, making this workout even tougher, and it didn’t stop there. Coach revealed one more thing to just me and James before we begun, “Anything over 70 doesn’t count” he informed us. It was obvious to me that this workout was obviously phased at getting me used to running sub 4:40 pace, as every time I tried to go under, I never had more than 1 lap (always my first lap) under 70 seconds. The first 4 seemed smooth as silk, as we clocked in at 67, 67, 66, 67 for each. The second set of 4 400s proved to be much tougher, and I could tell James was feeling good, as he continued to set a faster pace. We finished up the final 4 with times of 66, 65, 66, 65. Those last 2 especially were brutal, as James and I immediately went off to the side of the track in exhaustion after the last interval. Coach looked proud; the others all did 4-6 400s, making up the rest of the 3200m workout in 200s. After this workout, I immediately realized that there is no reason I can’t go under 4:40 for the 1600m.
The big day finally arrived on Saturday (Apr 12) as we traveled to Hackensack for the Comet Relays. Coach informed us that besides the East Coast Relays, this is the toughest competition we would face all year. At precisely 9pm, the gun went off for the 4x1600 and I was immediately off and running as the leadoff leg again. We were seeded 5th, and knowing that only the top 5 placed for medals, we all had an even bigger incentive to push as hard as possible. I immediately positioned myself to the front, getting a much better start than last week, running side by side with a runner from Old Tappan in the outside of Lane 1. Every time I attempted to make a move on him to move into the lead by myself (and move into the inside of Lane 1), he matched my pace. I ended up running the entire race in the outside of Lane 1, even in the final 200m we ran side by side, handing off the baton at the same time to our 2nd legs. For some reason, as each lap went by, I felt as if I almost never got tired, first time I can ever recall I felt like that in a 1600m race. I went through lap 1 comfortably in 65, and continued to push splitting 2:16 at the 800 mark. I closed in two 70s, finishing in 4:36 and finally breaking that 4:40 barrier, and I must say it felt pretty damn good knowing I finally achieved what I knew I was capable of for so long. I still never went under 70 seconds for more than 1 lap, but I’m confident I can get over that soon, as I try to push into the low 4:30s and beyond.
Back to the relay itself, Steve Boyd took the baton from me starting in a very close 2nd; however he faded all the way back to 7th as he split a 5:02 (2 sec slower than his 5 flat PR). However, Josh Arnau took the baton 3rd and held the 7th place spot for 3 laps. However, he unleashed an unearthly kick in the last 200m of his race, moving from 7th to 5th and putting an 8 second gap on those 2 that had a 5-6 second lead on him at around 300m to go in his leg. Josh is a great athlete, and is always able to kick with that 52 400 and 2:01 800 speed of his. He split 4:50, a 9 second PR over the 4:59 he ran the week prior, and he made up a lot of time putting us back into medal position. James finished the deal, picking off one more runner on his way to a 4th place finish and a 4:36 split. He closed the gap tremendously on the top 3 teams (down to under 4 seconds from what was 10+, 2nd and 3rd finished in 19:01.x); however it just wasn’t enough to reel them in completely. Our total finishing time was 19:04, 26 seconds faster than last week, a great team effort all around. And I must say, the Comet Relay medals kick ass.
About 3.5 hours later, I lined up again for the Distance Medley, this time we were seeded 3rd. I started out strong, splitting 65 again and taking the lead on the homestretch of lap 1. However 2 runners passed and put a slight gap on me over the next 2 laps. I split 3:24 in the 1200, 3 sec faster than last week and 2 sec faster than my split 3 sec into my 1600 earlier in the day. Eric Bush (sophomore, 400m runner), took the baton in 3rd and dropped to a close 4th, splitting 55.x. Josh Arnau split 2:06, 5 sec faster than last week but still not up to his standards, maintaining 4th place. James knew what he had to do, getting the baton in a pack of runners from 3rd to 5th. He hung with them for about 2 laps, then began to pull away, he split a blazing 63 seconds his first lap. After he cracked Mike Mitchell of Bergen Tech to move into 3rd (who beat James to the line by 3 seconds last week at the Palowski Relays to win the Distance Medley), he put his eye on the anchor from Paramus Catholic. Last week, James out kicked the same runner to the line to place 2nd in the DM at the Palowski Relays. This time however, he lost the battle by about a tenth of a second, as we placed 3rd. Still, it was a great day, total time of 10:58, 15 seconds faster than last week. James split a 4:32, once again defying logic by running faster his second 1600 of the day, as he always does.
I finished my week with a slow recovery long run (15 mi) on Sunday. We had another NHC League Meet yesterday (Apr 14), but I’ll wait until next week’s edition to tell you about that. Also, this coming Saturday are the HCTCA Relays, where we are finally hoping to come out on top.
-Rob A