FARC holds informal track meets in June and July. We’re fortunate that the local high school has a track open to the public.
The meets run on Tuesdays from June 10 to July 29. A Facebook poll determines which races would be held.
Schedule conflicts and a heat wave prevented me from participating until July 8. Even though I had run a 5-mile race four days earlier, I was willing to put in another hard effort. Training for a fall marathon, I ran six miles on July 7. My typical daily runs have been 4 miles.
To ensure I would attend, I contacted Chuck Love to see if he wanted to purchase some race supplies I had found in my garage. He confirmed he would be at the track.
The forecast was for temperatures in the low 90s with a chance of thunderstorms. Looking at the radar map, I arrived at 5:30 pm for the 6:00 pm start. I needed to get at least 4 miles in, and my body requires a good warm-up before a significant effort.
Chuck pulled up the same time I did and took the supplies off my hands. I started my warmup laps.
The first lap was 30 paces run every 100 meters. Then, I ran longer distances, with 100-meter walk breaks, progressing to 400-meter runs. Somehow, my Garmin recorded 1.38 miles for 2100 meters. 1.38 miles is 2220 meters.
I determined the sequence of races: 200 meters, 1600 meters, 400 meters, and 800 meters. I signed up for the 1600 and 800. Chuck was testing his timing configuration and issued bibs with attached timing tags.
I ran another four and a half laps. My Garmin recorded 1.17 miles. During these runs, thunder started to rumble, and lightning strikes were spotted to the north and south of the track.
I asked for Chuck to pull up a weather app and ran a lap while waiting. To this point, no rain had fallen.
The forecast indicated that the storm would clear the area by 6:30 pm. So, at 6:05, I told everyone to come back at 6:30. I hung out on the track for a few minutes, then changed into an old pair of shoes, which I use in wet weather.
By 6:30, the storm had passed without a drop falling.
After the 200 was run, they told me the 1600 would start in 5 minutes. So, I covered another lap.
When the storm came through, the temperature dropped 10 degrees. My plan for the 1600 was to run as well as I could, aiming for even splits. My splits were 2:19, 2:21, 2:25, and 2:13. My Garmin recorded 1.03 miles, even though I only ran 1600 meters. I know I ran in lane one the entire race. My finish time was 9:20.
According to the Garmin measurements, it reported a new mile and 1km PRs of 9:05 and 5:39. Wow, those are off. My heart rate averaged 164 and maxed at 179 during the effort.
I ran/walked three more laps while the 400 was held.
I was not feeling great when the 800 started. My two laps were 2:23 and 2:11, totaling 4:34. I was able to sustain a hard effort in the final 100 meters. My heart rate was 159 and 177.
It was good that my speed was consistent for both races, and my laps were relatively consistent.
My usual max heart rate during a race is below 165. Since this was a nighttime race, the beta blockers I took in the morning were less effective, allowing the higher heart rate. Over the following days, I have not experienced any arrhythmias. Hopefully, I can stop the drugs in the next couple of months.
I ran/walked another couple of laps to cool down. My total miles for the day were a little over five.