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Meet Report: 2nd Annual Sunset Summer Classic

June 6th, 2021

It storms in Georgia—not something I ever had to worry about racing in California. Yesterday’s meet, the Summer Sunset Classic in Marietta, was interrupted for almost two hours by a thunderstorm. Thankfully, the meet wasn’t canceled and I was able to compete in one of my two scheduled races: I raced the 100 under the lights around 10pm, and ditched the 200 since 10pm is already well past my ordinary bedtime.

100m: 11.05 (-0.8)

  • My warmup routine was cut short by a downpour right as they were setting up for the 100. To make matters worse, while they’d run previous events young-to-old, the meet organizers decided at the last minute to run the open and masters athletes first. I had to rush to get my spikes on (I even forgot to bring my racing socks on and had to race barefoot) and to get a couple of hard strides in.
  • It was still raining moderately when I ran, and stopped the heat afterwards. I’m a little bummed by the conditions, but it’s still a lot better than the worst case of a canceled meet.
  • My reaction time and first step were mediocre. This is becoming a worrying pattern—I’m not used to starting behind anybody. I’ll have to figure that out in the coming weeks. I also drifted left during my first few steps, which is something I’ve noticed happening in practice as well.
  • I had a great transition phase and had the lead by the time I hit max velocity around 40m.
  • Max velocity felt smooth and relaxed until around the 80m mark where I misstepped, crossing over and hitting my left calf with my right foot. Not 100% sure what happened—I’m going to chalk it up on the wet track.
  • I won my heat by a wide margin and took 6th overall.

This was an encouraging race: just a tenth off my lifetime best despite a pretty terrible situation. I think that if the conditions had even been neutral I would have PR’d. But that’s track!

Next up, I’m racing on 6/12 in either Douglasville GA or Oxford AL depending on the weather.

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