The First 800 Meter Race!

Yeah, I actually participated in a track meet. A swammer, at age 37, entering himself in a track meet for a running race. Why not? Life is about trying new things, even if they’re a little uncomfortable. I don’t want to revisit the pool; I’ve chased the black line at the bottom enough times.

So I entered myself in the 800 meter run. I wanted to practice sprinting, and the 800 seemed like an intriguing distance. Compared to a marathon, at least, an 800 meter race is a sprint.

So I’m at a 400 meter track on a Saturday afternoon, it’s blazing hot, and the track has a black-colored surface. In other words, I’m running in a sauna.

They called my heat up and my lack of attention span immediately got the best of me. A meet official was explaining where we had to line up. I was distracted and staring at the clouds, honestly, and thinking about how cool my new bandana was. I wore it over my head as a sweat bandana.

I had bought the bandana the week before. It has a nice assemblage of desert-themed colors dyed onto it. Since I wore a racing team singlet, the bandana provided some stylistic flair.

Then before I knew it, the other runners were walking to the starting position. Oh crap, I thought. Where am I supposed to go? Maybe I should’ve paid attention. What is the starting position?

Then the gun went off and I started running. Whoops.

I wasn’t sure what an 800 meter track sprint should feel like, so I was a little conservative on the first lap. After crossing 400 meters I realized I had plenty of energy and picked my pace up a notch. I caught some runners and gained on the lead runner.

I finished in second overall, just a half-second out of first. The winner was 10 years my minor though. Not bad for an old dude with his head somewhere in the clouds I guess.

Next time I’ll take it!