Training Log Archive: maprunner

State Games of America, Grand Rapids MI
100 m
16.95

The track schedule called for young girls to run at 1 pm and old ladies to run at 1:45. So I slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, and then went to the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum. That was really interesting. I forgot how much he packed into a short term. And how important he was to restore normalcy to the country.

I had a small snack, then arrived at the stadium around 1 pm. I changed clothes and came out to watch the young girls run. But the runners were old, and they announced that this was the last heat for women's 100m. WTF????

In a panic, I checked my watch, checked my printed schedule. I was right and they were wrong. Why did I miss the race? I ran up to some women who had just finished, asked them if they truly had run the women's races already. They said yes, they announced 30 minutes earlier that all the women would run at 1:00. (I now notice that the schedule originally called for boys and girls at 1:00, then men and women at 1:45. But instead they ran all females, then all males.)

I was devastated. I had come all this way just to run the 100. How could I have missed it? Then I started to get angry, how could they move the start time so much?

I found the guy managing the heats, and he put me in touch with the race director. He first tried, well, we said the times were subject to change. But I was not accepting that and I asked if I could run with the men (who were just lining up for their races). He agreed that they would fit me into a heat, after I warmed up.

I ran off and did a mini-warm up, because I wasn't sure how quickly they would move through the heats. In retrospect, I could have warmed up a little longer. But instead, I stood there chatting with the M65s and M70s and jogging in place. And to calm my nerves. No need to worry about adrenaline today, I had tons of it in my system already!

I ran a heat with two M70s. They used blocks, which surprised me (most women my age have already given up on blocks). I don't remember the start, which I take as a good sign. Meant I was just powering though and not thinking. I remember the last third of the race, where one guy was far ahead and one guy was far behind, and I was focusing on leaning and using my arms. Got a little bit tired at the end, but I managed to hold my form this time.

My time was 16.95, which I think was excellent, given the circumstances. I was happy I got to run, and that I was under 17 seconds. I'm amazed I did it on such a short warm up.

Ended up second in my class (only three of us). I regret not meeting the other women and running head to head with them. But I had fun chatting with the men. And I think they enjoyed having me there too. Many of them came up to talk to me after the race, ask how I did, etc. I was really surprised by this. But it was fun. I also talked with the older women who I talked to when I first arrived. I stayed around to watch some more races, chatted with some more folks, and enjoyed the atmosphere.

This was a huge stadium, especially considering it was a high school. The campus was also very large. Wonder how many students? Must be a lot, because they even had a separate "freshman campus".

I still had some time to kill before my flight home, so I went to the Meijer Botanical and Sculpture Garden. This was beautiful, I highly recommend.

There were storms in Chicago and KC, which led to some delays and bumpy flights. And then I had a harrowing drive home in the dark on water-logged roads with no visibility in the rain. More adrenaline today! Very happy to get home around 11 pm.

C • 100m 4

Just a little bit of exercise before a long travel day to Grand Rapids.
After I arrived, I had time to go fabric shopping tonight. It's rare for me to find a store with garment fabrics (everything is quilting these days). It was so much fun to browse, and of course, to touch! Bought more than I should have....

Around Holcom. Beautiful evening, cool temps. But I felt a bit off and tired, so this was just ho-hum.

Stopped at Bonner Park after work to run the sprint that I missed a few weeks ago. I used to tun at this park all the time when we lived in KC, but I hadn't been here in a few years. Made it feel almost like a new park. Good course. I had trouble identifying exact trees without the controls. And I also thought I had remembered a short cut though the dark green to 9. There was a deer trail to start, but it soon petered out and turned into a mistake. Ah well. As I was running close to 9, I did see a nice shortcut that I took back to 10.

http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=map...

Dave and Bethany left early this morning, and it was a beautiful day. Perfect for some outdoors activity. Yet all I did was take a 2-hour nap and sit around watching TV all day. Guess I needed a break. Or I'm getting lazy.