Negatives and Positives at the NYU Last Chance

Yesterday was my last chance to qualify for IC4A's, which is a championship meet where entries get in on time, and unfortunately, I didn't qualify. I had a good shot of making it in the 1000m, I was ranked 8th, was in the fast heat, yet it didn't pan out. I could blame the fact that the WHOLE heat ran slow, no one in the heat made the qualifying standard, but people in the other heat did, so there's really no excuse, I should've gotten up and ran.

The second race of the day was a big positive for me in that I overcame my fear to take the lead and PUSH. I was the lead off leg of the Distance Medley Relay, which is a 1200-400-800-1600 meter relay, so I left it off, and I ran a really solid time of 3:08 for my split. Overall we improved like 6 seconds, but I improved like 8 seconds, so we slowed down as a team apart from me, so we got work to do.

That was the last race of my indoor season, which was a pretty decent season, where I learnt a lot, but it was my last season as a collegiate athlete. Last chance is outdoors, and I got nothing left to lose.

More later,

-Steve

Another race this weekend, and an interesting story of a Sudanese basketball player

Hey once again I've had another tough week at practice, 6x300m at under 43 seconds, so that's pretty exhausting, but overall I'm still in one piece. I have what could be my last indoor race of the season. It's called the NYU Last Chance meet, it's on Friday at the Armory, and it's a place where people who haven't made standards in their events to quality for IC4A or NCAA championships give it a last shot. I'm going to try to qualify in the 1000m, I'm ranked 8th so I have a shot.

Also in other news I read a really good article on a Sudanese basketball player who's from war-torn Sudan (the region close to Darfur I think). He has a really riviting story of what he's been through with his home country, his family and his career. It's quite amazing to tell the truth, and worth the read. You can check it out HERE if you want.

Enjoy!

-Steve

Waste of time at the New Balance Collegiate Invitiational

Yea I just spent all day today at the New Balance collegiate invitiational in the Bronx today. I didn't even get to run so it was a real waste of time. I was supposed to be in the 1000m but they only ran 3 heats so I was an alternate. Therefore I had to wait for people to strach from the race to run. People did since I saw some people not start the race yet they wouldn't allow me nor my teammate to run. It was crock of crap (for lack of better words).

Oh well going to Yale tomorrow to run there in their meet, should be good and fast and a lot of decent schools are going. More news tomorrow,

-Steve

Long week back, now the Great Dane Invitational

This week I'm again back at the Armory, for the last in a set of 3 races in a row there. It'll be good to get out of here next week for the Terrier Classic up in Boston, but since I'm stuck in New York I had to take care of business.

Coach was impressed by my run of two 4:30s pretty much back to back so she wanted to see what I could do in the 3000m again. I wanted to see what I could do in a speed situation after that 4x800m so I asked to do an 800m, so she obliged. It was a great meet for me, since I started out the day running the 800 and I ran a 1:59.22, a new indoor 800m Personal Best. It felt great and easy, ran a 28 for the 1st 200m (remember indoor 200m tracks), then 3 consecutive 30's, they were 30.XX but they totalled for a 1:59. Then I had the 3000m, and since I was feeling good from the 800m I just went out and did what I could. It was a smaller meet, and I was put into the Seeded section of the 3000m, meaning I was in the fastest heat, and I didn't disappoint, running 8:58, a new Indoors Personal Best in the 3000m. Yep I was estatic, since I had the strength now to run a short and long race in the same day and still run respectable times.

Now to get my revenge on the Mile, off to Boston!

-Steve

Another week another Track Meet

While I'm still on Winter Break at LIU track don't take no break, so we have our season meet of the break at the NYU Gotham Cup which takes place at everyone's favorite track, The Armory, up in Washington Heights, Manhattan, NY. This time we're running our 1st DMR of the season, where I'm running the Mile leg, and I'm running the Mile individually. The DMR is the short form for the Distance Medley relay, where a team of 4 runners run 4 different legs. The leadoff leg runs a 1200m, then the 2nd leg runs a 400m, he hands off to the 800m leg and lastly the anchor leg runs a 1600m, or metric mile.

So I had the individual mile first, and I went out in 2:10, a little slow, but then lost focus and couldn't run the way I wanted too. Don't know why but I ended up running a 4:30.5, which is slow by my standards since I had run a 4:27 the year before. Next up was the Medley, and Dan led it off, ran 3:14, nothing spectacular, followed by a 52.8 in the 400m by Akil. Then Kel ran a 2:01/2:02, also subpar for him and then he handed it off to me. I ran a 4:31, but the way I ran it was really strong, since I went out in a 2:14 and came back in a 2:16, which meant I was getting stronger. I didn't run that fast of a time either, but running 2 4:30's back to back is a good sign of strength, we'll see what it earns me later.

Yep more later, or after the next race if I get lazy again, lol

-Steve

Back in NYC - Fordham Invitational

Back to New York I am, and with that it means more training and running. It's good being back for that reason, and the meal money doesn't hurt, however I'm not in my permanent room and that's annoying.

The trip back on the Greyhound was fun since I met this nice lady from Long Island who was a runner so it was interesting talking to her. Then I crashed at my friends house in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, which isn't as bad as people make it seem. Then I was in the dorms and off to the Fordham Invitational up in the Armory Track & Field Center, which is up in Washington Heights, the northern part of the Island of Manhattan in New York City.

I ran 2 race today, the 1000m and the 4x800m. The 1000m didn't go so well, I didn't attack and only tried to run the last 150m, that usually doesn't work and you don't get a great time doing that. So I ended up with the subpar time of 2:36. Next we ran a 4x800m relay, which was fun and interesting, it's not a traditional race Indoors for us since there's no 4x800m at Conference Championships but we had run. We ended up in 8:09, not a great time, however I ended up running a 1:59.5 split for my leg, the fastest split on the team, so I was happy with that result as well. Hey I might be an 800m runner after all, we'll see.

Alright more news as the week progresses,

-Steve