Monday, June 12, 2006

RIDDLE ME THIS

When is it better to be “smart” than “fast?” At the State Meet, of course.



Here’s a photo of my friend Eric’s daughter, 300 meters into the 3200. She’s the one in last. Even with the cold, blustery conditions, Sal stayed within herself and ran her own race. The results: an 8th place finish in 11:12, which is a 12 second PR. The next day she came back with another 12 second PR, this time she finished 6th in the 1600 in 5:05. What a great way to conclude her high school career. Up next: more great things at the University of Minnesota.

One of her teammates will be one of Minnesota’s most-decorated high school runners, Elizabeth Yetzer, who’s broken most if not all of Carrie Tollefson’s records. Yetzer was a double winner – giving her 7 titles for her career - by running 4:46 and 10:26 over the weekend. Neither time beat her previous meet records – due to the blustery conditions.

I’ll have more from the state meet later this week – once I can find results online.

As for me, I’m a runner again. I saw the doctor on Friday and he showed me some stretches and foam roller exercises. Best of all he said “Go run.” Unlike the last doctor who said “Good luck.” Hmm, just a slight difference in those statements.

Friday night I made it 40 minutes and Sunday I made it for nearly an hour. I still have a little pain, but not too bad. I’m a little leery that it’ll flare up as I increase my mileage. At least now, when I go back on Thursday, I’ll be able to pinpoint exactly what’s hurting. To me it seems to be deep in the calf, not something I could just massage out. I’m guessing it’s where the sciatic nerve meets the soleus muscle. Just remember I majored in Economics not Anatomy.

I’m finding it’s a little discouraging to look at race results while I’m injured. My age-group at a popular 8k over the weekend was won in 29:40. The guy was 30th overall. Of the 29 people in front of him, 18 were OLDER. Heck, the first woman in our age group ran 29:45. The same guy won our age group at a recent 15k, finishing 11th overall. 8 of the people in front of him were Masters.

Today’s quote of the day is not really a quote, but a statement – one that would make a great name for a blog. Anyone interested?

Fortitudine Vincimus (By endurance we conquer).”

5 comments:

Trisaratops said...

Awesome for your friend's daughter! I am amazed at the high school kids. One of mine ran a 9:48 3200 last weekend which got him 5th in the state. The kid who finished 4th LOST HIS SHOE during the 800 and KEPT GOING for something like a 9:40!!! Sheesh! I presume we'll see the Little Zekes there in about 10 years? :)

Love that quote/statement, too!

Bart said...

This weekend I watched the California State T&F championships on television. A 9th grade girl won the 3200 with a time of 10:13. She was pretty much running alone for the entire second half of the race.

seebo said...

Don't be dissin' on masters being in front. Someday, God willing, you'll be old and out front as well.

Good to hear you're running again; I'll be rooting for you.

Mike said...

Running again- great news!
Foam rollers = evil. Those things can dish out some serious pain if your muscles are tight- be strong!!

Chad said...

Sara, congrats to "your kid." Yes, some of these kids are amazing. We had 3 boys break 9:10 and they're all underclassmen.

Not sure about little Zekes running. It'll be up to them. I try to take them to races, jog with them and enter them in the local kids races. Hopefully that'll spark an interest. If not, that's fine too.

Bart, it'll be interesting to see if she improves as she gets older. So many girls slow down as they reach puberty.

Seebo, I wasn't dissin' on masters. I'd admire the masters. I'm dissin' on the 35-39 age group.

Mike, I haven't had any really tight muscles yet, so I haven't been exposed to it's full evilness. At least with the foam roller you can adjust how much weight you're applying.