I never really loved indoor track, although when I ran in college there were some exciting moments. As a freshman I won my heat in the 600 yard dash at our conference meet, after two guys got tangled and fell and I hurdled one of them as he was sprawled on the track. The next year I ran my first ever 2 mile and won! I only ran three seasons as an undergrad maybe 15 meets total. And only race twice since then, in 1981 just after graduating and in 1991.
In other words, I’d rather be skiing!
My 2024 ski endeavors have been a wash with bad snow or bad weather, getting sick, a winter race schedule, and other things popping up. I think in the future I’ll get into more skiing.
I will be racing the USATF masters 5K on the roads next week, and at last month’s cross country championship I really felt my lack of speed, 6:20 pace felt like a sprint and my competitors just pulled away easily on that 8K course. So I have added a bit of speedwork to prepare for that 5K and decided to cap it off by running a double at the USATF Mid-America regional championship in Colorado Springs. The meet was slated for the relatively new indoor facility at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs (UCCS) on Sunday (elevation 6250 feet). I figured that would have some effect on the my speed but I live at over 7000 feet and train mostly at about 5500-6000 feet, so figured that wouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
However, on Friday there was a shooting on the campus, two people were killed, and the university cancelled all activities for the weekend, including the race. That’s a terrible thing. Not the cancellation, but the shooting.
The USATF organizers moved quickly and the near Air Force Academy (AFA) agreed to host the meet at their venerable track, set at 7075 feet on the beautiful campus situated next to the foothills. That’s amazing that USATF was able to make that happen in just a matter of ours. The only real downside was the elevation difference and the Academy’s notedly old track. So I knew each race would be a grind.
First up, the 3000. My goal for the UCCS track was to run around 11:00-11:10, although I figured that might be a stretch, my last 3000 (outdoors in Boulder at 5300 feet) in 2021, was only an 11:09. But I’m an optimist and felt I could click off 44-45 second laps and make it happen with a good kick at the end. That would put me near the top fastest age group times in the world for the 2023-24 season even at altitude.
My friend David Westenberg ran 10:32 in December and while I wouldn’t be close to that, an 11:00 would compare favorably with a conversion factor to 10:36. Close at least.
3000 Meters 11.2 laps
Seventeen runners were entered and with a couple scratches 15 lined up, five women and ten men. They lined the women up on the inside lanes. With a seed off 11, I was on the far outside, so rather than that I lined up behind the two fastest looking guys.
The AFA track is an odd 268 meters, with long straights and tight curves, exactly 6 laps per mile. With the higher elevation I figured 60-61 per lap would keep me in the 11:15 range, so not too far off my original goal.
The gun fired and I immediately dropped to about 12th place. We strung out and I tried to relax, although I had the thought of just sprinting out to run with the leaders for a couple laps. I knew that would end up being rather painful so kept my head.
Off the line, near the back (Lane 1 Photos)
2nd lap pondering my sanity to run an indoor meet at 7000′
The first lap was right at 60, so not bad, then 2:02, 3:02, 4:03. I picked off a few runners in the early laps and there was a big gap (80 meters up to the next two). Split the mile at about 6:05-06 and was actually feeling pretty good. But on the 7th and 8th laps I could feel the effort increasing and I slowed to 62s-63s through lap 10. I did through down my best kick over the last lap and was under 60. And crossed in 11:27. It was a positive split, but I’m not disappointed to finish in 6:08.9/mile pace, which would be 5K goal pace at 5280 feet in Denver or Boulder.
Dead Last in the Last Mile
Not as ominous it sounds, but this was the last race on the old track at the AFA Field House. They are going to shut it down next year and build a new track, no doubt a banked 200 m oval that will have a state-of-the-art surface. It will certainly be faster than the current version. Maybe I’ll give it a shot in another 30 or 40 years. Maybe not!
After a 10 minute cool down I relaxed for a couple hours in the infield and tried to track some cross country ski World Cup results online, from races taking place in Minneapolis.
In the afternoon I warmed up outside for another 10-12 minutes and did a few pick ups. Eleven runners had signed up for the mile, but the attrition rate was pretty high and only six of us lined up. I was the oldest by 15 years and it showed. The other five runners gapped me immediately and I ran the entire race far off the pace. For this one I just wanted to run relaxed for the first couple of laps and then bring the pace down. I was hoping for 5:45 or so, but would be happy with a 5:50 considering the double and the elevation.
It pretty much went according to plan, as I was just under 2:00 after two laps, 3:57 at four laps, and with about 300 meters to go I started my version of a kick, covering the last lap in about 56 to finish dead last in 5:51.4. My slowest track mile on record (by 16 seconds, I ran a 5:35 at the Mile High Mile in 2021, 5:42 on the road at the Carnation Mile in 2022). That’s okay, I got what I wanted out of it.
rrunnin234 