Blogs : Eric Simmons

I ran the 800 and the 100 in the same meet..... and did so within less that 10 minutes of each other

Hopefully this title made people click on my journal

We opened up our outdoor season at the Emory Invitational in Atlanta. It's a relatively low-key meet and it's close, so it was easy on the budget and hard on our legs. Several people on our team were loaded up with several events intentionally to prepare them for future meets, most specifically the Florida State Seminole Invitational where most of us will be open with our specialty events. Off the top of my head, I know kara had to the the 800, the 400 hurdles, and both relays, Keisha also had to the 400, 400 hurdles, and both relays. Some distance runners started running Friday and at this moment are probably still downtown somewhere finishing up. I was also one of those people who ran several races, but of significantly less distance. My workload for the week was 4x1, 100 (prelims/finals in the same day), 800, and 4x4. I felt appreciative as it could have been worse based on everyone else's day.

I said that before the meet, but after the meet, I don't think it could have gotten any worse. The prelims for the 100 were at 9:50 and personally I don't think anyone should be sprinting that early in the morning. I went through my usual warmup schtick and got ready to run. I had a great start, which was probably a flyer, but the guy in lane 2 false started. On the second go round, I did everything that a 100 meter runner is probably coached NOT to do and finished with the blazing time of 11.21. Yeah, I didn't break 11. Somehow, that display of pure sprint speed made it into the finals.

Next was the 4x1. We were crushing the field through 2 legs and after the 2nd and 3rd exchanges we found ourselves down to the host squad, getting 2nd with 42.2 Our original third leg was unable to compete, so we subbed Lawrence in at 3rd leg. I shouldn't say we subbed him in, but we actually stuck him. I don't say stuck in a negative sense, but because we found out a day before the meet we weren't running our original team, we stuck Lawrence at third, guesstimated some steps, and just prayed it all worked out. It wasn't great, but it could have been worse. If me and Lawrence, and Lawrence and Tim had steps, it would have been all good.

After the 4x1, I was feeling good about running the 100 finals, which were slated to begin at 1:55. The 4x1 was at 12:30, so I went to the stands for a Smartwater before the finals. I left the stands at 1, feeling I didn't need a full warmup because I had just run. I got down to the line and the meet director suddenly announces they are 30 minutes ahead and will stay that way. Actually, they weren't really ahead, but there was a storm approaching and they were rushing everything. So, I got the poorest warmup in life in and got in the blocks, at this time praying more for hamstring health and not for results. While in the blocks, I hear the final call for the 800m, which put me on the verge of tears. I got a better start than the prelims, and ran 10.80, which bettered the school record of a hand-timed 10.64, for 3rd place.

Immediately after the 100, I had to report to the line to run the 8. I only had enough time to switch spikes and make a half-hearted plea to my coaches to let me scratch the 8, which of course I was denied. My teammate Walid was in the race too and was somewhere getting treatment. He was not aware of the "schedule change" and showed up to the starting line in just shorts and changed at the starting line. When they announced the competitors, I was still bent over with my legs on fire, contemplating why I had to do this. The gun fired and I got boxed in within the first 100 meters. I came throught the 200 in 27 and felt my legs fading. I came through the quarter in 57 and several people passed me. I tried to pick up my legs to make a half way respectable showing but I couldn't even do it. As I came around the curve, Coach Toro just said "shut it down man, shut it down." I ran a time of 2:06, which would be good enough for 3rd at the Clayton County Jr. High Invite.

Then came the hour something storm delay, where several teams left. Of course, none of them were us. After the storm delay, I had 30 min to warm up for the 4x4. Ahmad split 48.5, Lawrence went 52, I went 48.1, and Walid went 52 something. I ran the kid down in front of me within the first 100, but after that my legs were non-existent when I called on them. Somebody recorded it, and I had the knee lift and arm action of a child who just started wallking.

Hopefully, doing things like 5 events and training hard up until Florida State will lead for some very productive 200/400 meter races. All in all, the meet was an overall success. There were a slew of records broken. The women's 200, 400, 400 hurdles, 4x4, the men's 110 hurdles, 400 hurdles, 100,and 10,000. I think there are more, but this is just off the top of my head. This weekend is the Jacksonville State invite, where I'm leaning toward asking to run the 800. I hate the 800 with a passion, but I'm not going to run the 400 this weekend. Also, after running 1:53 consecutive years, I can't let my 800 career end on a 2:06.

See you guys next week.

Untitled Comment

4:06 PM, March 31, 2008 .. Posted by ULMSpeeddemon

Seem like you had a tough day. It will pay-off in the end though.

ouch!

11:30 PM, March 31, 2008 .. Posted by missbri

i feel your pain...even though i have never in life had to line up for an 800. i can imagine though!

Untitled Comment

2:53 AM, April 3, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Thats not bad, Used to run the 4x800 and then go run the 110 hurdles right after in high school. First two races of the day.