My last college meet of the season was last weekend in Cleveland, Tennessee at Lee University’s last chance meet. I ran here both in 2021 and 2022, and the overall experience this year was similar: crowded and hot. This year, there were more competitors than in either of the previous two, and it felt even hotter; even though I made a point of drinking a ton of water, I was still pretty dehydrated most of the day.

I competed in the 200m in Nashville at Vanderbilt’s Outdoor Music City Challenge last Friday. It was an evening meet—I raced around 6:30PM, which is not far off from my typical bedtime. Usually, for evening meets, I like to adjust my training schedule to try to get used to the competition time. Unfortunately, the track I’m running at isn’t consistently open during the afternoons, so I couldn’t do that.

I was back in Sewanee, Tennessee this weekend for the Mountain Laurel Invitational. Last year, I set my 200m personal best at this meet, so I was excited to see what I could do here.

My back has been feeling much better since the Stanford Invite. All that’s left is occasional stiffness, weakness especially when loaded up in the weight room (I’m still not over ~50% of my old maxes when deadlifting and squatting), and seemingly worse hip proprioception at max speed—my hips have been a lot more anteriorly tilted after the injury.

I didn’t have a great week of training leading up to meet day—I’m back to working out extremely early, which definitely takes adjustment, and I had just completed the ~25 hour drive from Montana to Tennessee the previous week. Meet day, on the other hand, was pretty much ideal: mid-60s, sunny, and with a slight tailwind.

Last weekend, I opened my outdoor season in the 2023 Stanford Invitational. I have a lot of personal history with this meet and with the Stanford track—I competed there in high school, and trained on the Stanford track through most of COVID.

I was doubly lucky to be able to compete in this meet: I had a friend on the inside who was able to get me a spot in the meet despite not coming close to the entry standards. I’ve also been dealing with a couple injuries over the past month, most recently a facet joint sprain in my lower back. In fact, my first full-speed workout was the day before the meet.

My last meet of the indoor season was the Big Sky Preview, once more in Bozeman. As usual, I signed up for the 60 and 200.

MSU has been a fantastic host—I’m grateful to the team for allowing me to compete with them, and just as grateful to all of the event staff.