She Runs by the Seashore

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I returned to the track Friday night for the second All-Comers Track Meet of the summer. I again ran my usual race, the 1600-meters, and volunteered at the Eastern Shore Running Club water and Gatorade table.

I saw the boy who I had been close to in the race last time, and he asked if I was running the race again. I told him I was. He said he recently ran the 1600 in 6:25, which I haven’t ever been able to do.

At Friday’s meet, he was far ahead of me in the race the entire time; I was nowhere near him. And right in front of me for pretty much the whole race was a boy who looked even younger than him.

I didn’t wear a watch, but I’m pretty sure I heard my splits called out as 1:48, 3:48 and 5:48, which would have meant I did the second and third laps in two minutes each. It seems a little unlikely that they each would have ended in “:48,” but that’s what I can recall, at least as I write this on Sunday.

I think I came in fifth overall, but I was first out of two women, so I ended up getting a blue ribbon. My time was 7:44, which wasn’t as fast as my time at the first meet.

Strangely, I went into the race feeling somewhat sore. Today was my 20th day of push-ups, so I would have done 17 days of push-ups by then (I hadn’t done Friday’s push-ups yet) and I had also completed an abs workout on Thursday. That combined with my recent running could have left me sore.

But I’m not using that as an excuse. Running the 1600/mile in 7:44 is still a strong time for me, and I was not disappointed. However, I was hoping to be under 7:30 — at the last meet I ran the 1600 in 7:33.

Read about my experiences at the meet earlier this summer and previous meets here.

The meets are hosted by the Westside Striders/Coach Leslie Wright. The team is affiliated with the Wicomico County Recreation, Parks & Tourism department, where I work.

These track meets are always a fun time, and it’s a supportive atmosphere for people of all ages. I was also happy to hear from someone that he found out about the meet from my blog!

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