I doubled up in the 1600 and the 3200 at an early season jamboree yesterday and I think it went pretty well. The first race of the meet was the 3200. I started off fairly slow and ran pretty even splits for the first mile. I think I ran that first one in 5:07. After that kids started falling back while I was able to hold my pace. I passed a couple of kids with three laps to go and started working my way up to a group of three runners, one of which was wearing our arch-nemesis' high school's jersey, Southridge :P I caught up to the group of three kids and passed two of them. Actually I passed all three, but the Southridge runner wasn't finished yet. He passed me with 350 to go, but that didn't last very long. I had way more in me then he did and I kicked passed him with 300 to go and never looked back. Usually my races involve me going out with the lead pack then slowly dying. But this race I ran nearly even splits, 5:07 and 5:09, and I even had a kick at the end, which, not gonna lie, felt really good. PR because that's the first time I've ran the 3200 on the track.
Two and a half hours later was the mile. There were three heats in the mile, and that was the cause of a bit of controversy because the fast runners were split up between all three heats. By some unspoken agreement, the fast guys decided to run in the third heat, regardless of what heat they were assigned originally. I really didn't care too much because I was doubling up anyways, and I had been focusing on the 3200. So I ran in the second heat, the one they put me in. Turns out, the second heat is filled with a bunch of kids that can barely break 5 minutes. I realized a minute before they fired the gun that that was my heat lining up on the line so I ripped off my sweats and set up in the second row of the waterfall start. I started off REALLY slow. I think my first lap was a 75. After that it was all fun and games. I started passing up kids left and right. Well, mostly on the right because we were running on a track. It was ridiculous how slowly these kids were running and by the straightaway on the third lap I had caught up to the leaders. By now I wasn't even breathing that hard and my legs felt good. So I passed up the leader with about 450 to go because he was dying like a fish without water, but mostly because I wanted to hear the crowd cheer. It was such and easy pace for the first three laps that I pretty much kicked the last 400. It was really awesome to win one for once, and even better, it was easy enough that I could just enjoy it. Final time 4:54. Would have been a PR for sure if I had been running fresh.
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