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So I headed over to the Westchester Summer Twilight Track and Field Series to get a glorified workout in. I started running double sessions this week so I just needed a little bit harder effort. The meet was held at Hen Hud HS and I have the series every year since 1985 except one, so it was important to get the race in.
The closer I got to Hen Hud, the worse the weather looked. Last week there were hundreds of kids and adults there for the races and I expected more of the same. As soon as I got within a mile of the track it started to down pour. When I pulled in the lot people were scrambling for their cars and I decided to try and wait it out in my car for a few minutes before trying to find the meet directors, Roy Arnesen, Keith Smith, and Marcia Bailey.
But as I was waiting in the deluge, I saw a few kids in uniforms run by on the track. The I saw a few more. Then I saw Nick Mitchell (the Stepinac HS coach and Wings Like Eagles director). I finally sprinted into the rain to find that the 800m run was actually taking place. These kids were pretty hard core.
As it turned out, this was the last kids race before the rain really started coming down. It rained harder and for longer than I have seen in a long time, but with no thunder or lightning. When it stopped the track could have been used for a swim meet. There was 3-4 inches of standing water on most of the home straight. There's no way the adult meet was gonna take place, was there?
Of course the adult meet went on. We ran one race on the track, a combined 1600m/3200m/drop out when you want. I chose the 3200m and ran a solid 11:45, splitting 5:54/5:51 through huge lake like puddles. All I wanted was to start making 6:50 miles feel easier since I need to string together 26 of them to break 3 hours in the marathon.
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