8/03/05
Week-11 Saturday
Toro Park 3.0mile
Meet: Toro-Team Builder
Size: Small
Result: 17:56(6th) 1st plc Team
I ran 17:56. Chilled most of the race, and during the hills my gut got crampaged. Ouch! I still managed to kick it in the home stretch. 6th place, and 1st place team.
9/01/05
Week-12 Saturday
Meet: Earlybird Invitations (@NMC)
Size: BIG!
Result: 17:15 21st (8th pl Team)
I was in a lot of gut pain for most of the race. I went out in 5:45, but I really didn’t have the momentum or energy to pick it up at all. I made a number of short moves, but it seemed like I couldn’t get my mind off the pain in my stumoch. My gut didn’t really burn with agony, it was just a mild cramp that wouldn’t go away. I had to be sure that my diaphragm didn’t cramp, so I was constantly gut-breathing. When I finished my race my brother who was working the chute hollared to me over the crowd “seventeen-fif…ee…” Which made me go into a serious bout of remorse. “All my summer training is for nuthing! I am a failure, I’m never going to run in college,” but i reffered to the one thing I have been repeating to myself all summer.
“In order to make peace with time, I have had to stop fighting it, and start working with it.”
Which pretty much means, that I am going to be training at MY level regardless of where I “should” be… And I’m also planning on improving a shitload this year. I think I could have gone sub-seventeen, had my gut not exploded in a cloud of flame.
Edit: Oh yah, and it’s kind of hypocritical, but when I found out my time was actually 17:15, I almost cried tears of joy.
9/17/05
Week-13 Saturday
Meet: Chieftan Invitational
Size: Medium Small
Result: 18:00 (3rd team)
I went out in about 5:29-5:30… I just didn’t do ANYTHING. I didn’t push it. When I got tired going up the hill I walked for 2 steps. When I went to sprint for the finish I had WAAAY to much energy. I just wasn’t into the race at all. Not much to say besides that. sigh
9/24/05
Week-14 Saturday
Meet: Stanford Invitational
Size: BIG!
Result: 17:49 (10th team)
… I got a cramp so bad that I had to stop on the down hill. I then kicked the last 400m faster than I’ve ever kicked in my entire life. I passed at least 30 people.
9/27/05
Week-15 Tuesday
Meet: Hollister/Madera/Auckland/North County Scrimmage
Size: Small (but FAST!)
Result: 20:18 (Slow course, but my time sucked anyway)
I went out well my first mile (5:25) and then faded from there. I’ll do better next time.
10/2/05
Week-15 Saturday
Week: Madera Invitational
Size: Medium
Result: 18:04, (4th team)
Today was a good race. I didn’t PR, or anything but it was a SLOW 5k. Most of the guys that ran 17:00 here, ran 16:00 at my home course. I’m very pleased, not because I PR’d or anything, but because I took an aggressive stance and attacked during the majority of the race. I made strong moves (admittedly, I slowed down from the 2.0-2.5 mile marks) but I finished well, and got a nice shiny medal. Baby steps. Baby steps in teh right direction. And my cramps? Didn’t LET them bother me. I got cramped during the last 1/2 mile of the race, but I worked throughit.
10/2/05 <— The real octobre second
Week-16 Monday: Dual Meet, Alisal, Alverez, Monterey, North County
Size: Small
I ran a 17:15, with a poor start, and a bit of a motivation problem from 2.0-2.5 miles. It was another step in the right direction, though. I’m moving up and gettin’g stronger. Soon I will be running 30 seconds faster than that time.
10/8/05
Week-16 Saturday: Clovis invitational
Size: Big
I went out in 5:09, and my second mile was 5:30+. I let off the gas from the 1.75-2.25 mark, but I finished very well, passing 3 of my team mates the last 400m. See journal for mor details.
2/11/06
Week-9
Meet: Los Gatos All Comers
Event(s): 800m
Result: 2:02-3rd
My 400m split was 60.0, the first 50m, I sprinted into first. I was overtaken on the back stretch by a pack of runners. I passed all but one of again during the final meters of the homestrech in the first lap. I could’ve made a move for first, but I hesitated and I didn’t do it. During the last 200m, my teammate passed me and beat me by about 1 meter.
2:02 ain’t bad at all for this early on… Happy with the result? Looks good to me
merily discontent. 
2/16-2/18-06
Meet: Simplot Indoor Games
Size: Huge
Events: 800m,1600m Medley, 4x800
Results: 800m: 2:05 trials, 2:04 finals, 1600m Medley: 3:49 trial-3:48 finals, (54.6 400 in flats)4x800: Let’s not talk about this.
My 800m race in the trails was tough and I wasn’t aggressive. In the finals, though, I was a crazy arse mofo and went for it like nuts on the third lap. Only problem… I tried to make a move around a turn… in the third lange :(. I worked my arse off the 3rd lap and locked up real bad the 4th. 28-30-31-33. I think I’m in shape to go sub-2 outdoors at sea level.
3/31-4/1/06
Meet: Stanford Invitational
Size: Big
Events DMR (800), 4x800 (1st leg), 4x400 (anchor)
results: 10:54 5th (2:01), 4x800 8:21 6th (2:03 
) 4x400 3:32 5th in heat (52.2)
A step in the right direction. Not a big one, or a really promising one, but I ran okay in the DMR. I went 56-65, so I ran the 800 the hard way. I was aggressive, and moved from 7th to 3rd in the first 200m, then slowly slid back to 5th at the exchange.
4x800 I started the race. I had a perfect race going up through 300m, then for some reason I shut it off on the home stretch. I dunno. LIke 6 guys blew by me. I kicked it in the last 200m strong, but the damage had been done.
4x400 our 3rd leg was/is not the same caliber as the rest of us. Our first 2 legs were 51.2, 51.9 and then he dumped a 55.7 egg and we went from nipping at the leaders heels to 5th place. A pack of 3 teams passed him. I was running on their heels the entire first lap. If I had gotten the stick in front of them, they wouldn’t have caught me. I kept the gap between us exactly the same as when I got the stick, kind of frustrating, not really though. this is my first 4x400 where I split under 53 this year. From a Long->Short program, I figure it’s no big deal if my quarter times are blazing.
4/29/06
Meet: Alisal Festival
Size: Medium
Events: 4x100 (anchor), 800, 4x400 (2nd)
Results: 44.86 (3rd) 1:58.89 5th, 3:29 3rd
I waited to post up here until I had something positive. It’s been three weeks, but I finally broke 2:00. It didn’t feel easy. No. I ran my heart out, but it felt like I didn’t have all the pieces together. Not that I was missing something in that race, but that in the future I’d be able to have more tools to win. Oh yah, and I ran a HARD race 56-62 :D. My weakest setion was from 250-50m, that 200 was where I was passed. 1:55 won the race, so this was a FAST 800 for such a small meet.
Kind of confusing ADD-Post. Gives you no re-cap.
I had a hard start and moved into first from the gun. Only 1 guy was near me at the 400m mark, and I stayed on him on the top turn as he started his move. Then around the back turn 3 guys caught up to me. One of them took off and fought for first, the other two I stayed on, but I couldn’t pass them on the home straight.
Great job, a 1:58 800 is no joke, and it looks like you’re just starting to get things together right when it counts. Keep it up, and good luck with league and CIF coming up.
I knew you’d be running sub 2 this season. No question. Keep up the good work on your road to the state meet!
Running aint easy. Not improving is even harder. But a good race? That makes the pain worth it
MBL (league meet)
800m: 1:59.10 2nd
I went out in 60, the Alisal kid came up on my shoulder at the 400m mark. He pushed around the turn, and I let him have it. I closed the gap on the back stretch and made a big kick at the top of the turn. Just like how I beat him in the dual meet. Coming the start of the homestretch I had a full stride on him, but the bastard had something left. He ran a 1:58.98 to beat me.
4x400m: I ran a horrible second leg 53.1? and it’s only because of the grace of god (Or our really flast black dude who split a 49.5 on his leg) that we made it out of our league.
CCS Trials
800m: I took it out in 56.0. I didn’t mean to, I just kind of got excited. My race was over at that point. I went from a 20m lead in 1st to third. I ran the 10th fastest time of the day, and didn’t make it to finals.
4x400m: I ran another lazy-leg. But this time I was lead-off, and again Reggie Topps our zippy black-dude made up an incredible gap and we got a heck of a lead. Our fourth man has been lacking all year (my 3 year friend and fellow 400m runner Chris Wiley moved north to red-bluff! Grrr! But more about this late)
And we threw a sophomore that’d run 53.5 in the open quarter. He tensed up. Ran “hard” not fast. Died the last 50m. But it was only because he was going so slow that we made it into finals. He got cut off on the top of the second turn by Scotts Valley runner, and they got DQ’d. Kinda jankey but hey we made it to finals.
(At this point Reggie qualified for CCS finals in the 100m, 200m, Long Jump, and 4x400.)
CCS Finals:
4x400: I was lying in the corall getting my shoes on trying to psych myself up. “C’mon Mike this is it. Two years of shitty running. Make it up all right now.” I went down to set up my blocks. Did my practice start, and I then made a stunning realization. “I can’t run with all that CRAP on my back!” And so I adjusted my blocks one last time. And when that gun went off, there were two things on my mind “oh my god, I have no idea how close my opponents are.” and “Don’t go over the little white line”. I ran 51.3h. My best 400m this year by over a second.
Time to get ahold of the Sacramento State Coach, Rothoff…
Edit: and Reggie ran 10.81 for 3rd. 21.87 for 2nd and 22’ 8 1/2" for 4th (but he met the automatic qualifier for the State meet. The guy is going in THREE EVENTS. JEbus!)
Thought we’d lost you there for a while, Palmtag 
Great job, you went through a lot this season. Way to come through in the end. Your boy Reggie is a stud it sounds like; is he going anywhere to run after HS? You plan on competing for Sac State?
Good job on your race … nice to get your updates!
We all do that at some point in one of our 800 runs 
.
I remember running an invitational 800 back in the day. One of the elite guys was a scratch, and they asked me if I wanted to run. Most of the field were comprised of sub 1:50 runners (2 guys had already run 1:46 that season), and I was by far the slowest guy there. So here I was stuck out in lane 8 wondering just how bad I was going to get smoked by these guys.
Bang, gun goes off and I take off like a bat out of hell. We get got the break, and I cut in first place :eek:. As I approach 200, I hear someone calling splits … 23 … 24 :eek:! Panic starts to set in, but I say to myself that I have to keep going. 400 approaches … 49 … 50 (I split 50.5), and I’m still leading the field :eek:! We hit the backstetch, and the two 1:46 runners finally pass me. They went through 600 in 1:16, and I was right behind them in 1:18 :eek:! I had never run anywhere near a 1:18 600 before!!
200 to go … could it be possible that I have the run of my life and destroy by PB (which was ~1:55 at the time) … ahhh NO :D! My body said “thanks for the ride, but it’s over”. Everyone and their dog was starting to pass me and there was nothing I could do about it. I jogged that last 200 in a pathetic 40s with 3 elephants on my back :rolleyes:! I must have covered the last 100 in 24s :D.
The only positive thing about that race was that half the field rans PBs that day, and the meet organizer wanted me to rabbit the next invitational meet :).
Keep up the good work and keep up all posted!!
MC-
Not to hijack, but I recently had a similar experience. I took it upon myself to run a 600m race last week vs. a 1500m runner and another 400 guy. Keep in mind, I have not gone over 320m in practice ONCE the entire year, and 400m was my event.
We take off and I knew as we broke in after the first turn I had gone out a bit fast. We went through 400m at 53.9 seconds (myself and the other 400 guy) and as soon as I hit 450m I was done for. I still managed a 1:26.2 which is a PB for me; the other two guys also PB’d massivley with a 1:22.9 for the other 400 guy (has a 800m background, will be running it next season defenitley!) and a 1:25.6 for the 1500 guy (who hadn’t even gone under 1:30 the entire year! :eek: ) … It took two sprinters to make him run for pride haha… I also may run a couple 800’s in the future if I train for it;I think I can dip under 1:20 sometime soon. That story just reminded me of my own experience…