Charities Challenge - First Indoor Meet

We had the Charities Challenge indoor track this weekend up in the Twin Cities. I'm not sure whether to call it the first indoor meet of 2013 or the last one of 2012. I think as far as USA Track & Field is concerned, it is considered the 2013 Indoor Season so I'll call it the first meet of the year.

My training for this meet consisted of starting up Insanity: The Asylum Volume 2. I was only a week and a half into the program, but I can tell that this is going to be a great workout for my training. When I started the Championship workout, the first thing we do is a simulated 400 meters. If there was any question about whether or not this was the workout for me, it was answered right there.

I went up with another Master's sprinter and we took along three youth. Two of them were our kids and the other one was a friend of my son's. One of my goals has been to try to get greater participation at the meets so I try to invite anyone I can. If we can get people to experience the meets and how much fun it can be, hopefully they will come back and invite others.

It was the first track meet for one of the boys. The three were technically in different age groups even though my son and his friend are in the same grade. It was great to see the boys enjoying themselves while showing a lot of effort in the races. Since they were all different ages, they were each able to have first-place finishes in their races while racing against each other. There were also meet records set by all of the boys. In fact, the youngest boy also set the Minnesota state record for each of his events in his age group. Pretty good for his first meet ever.

My races were a little better than I did at this point last year, but not quite where I thought I should be. I made a tactical mistake in my 400 and I think it cost me some time. I gave up the inside lane when we made the break at the 160 mark. (Actually the break line was incorrect so we can't technically turn in our times for the meet.) I ended up running out in lane two around the third corner and was never able to gain back any ground. I was running against all high-school boys so time-wise I was with a good group. My time was 55.24 so it was about two seconds slower than my Indoor National time from last year.

Gives me something to work on for next time.


"The pride you gain is worth the pain."  -Dennis Ogilvie