Meet Report: TFCUSA Club National Championships

I drove down to Oxford, Alabama for the TFCUSA Club National Championships. It’s primarily a youth meet, but thankfully they had an open section. The meet was well-run, especially given that they were wrangling children as young as 1 year old. I’m definitely encouraged by the track community I’ve seen since moving to Georgia: everyone I’ve talked to has been warm, friendly, and obsessed with track!

The meet wasn’t tracking wind information, but there was a medium-strength headwind all day. And it was hot! I brought 5 Gatorades, whcih I thought would be more than enough, but I had to supplement that with lots of water through the day.

100m: 10.93

I finished first in my heat and overall! To save time, the starter didn’t let us take any practice starts. I still came out OK, and overall, despite missing my PR by 0.01, this felt like my best race of the year so far!

• I felt aggressive out of the blocks, especially compared to last week.
• My reaction time was a little late—I started behind another runner.
• I stayed patient with my acceleration, and for once, I actually passed somebody during the race and held that through the finish line.
• I felt really smooth and relaxed through the entire race. So relaxed, in fact, that I was worried I didn’t give it my all.

200m: 22.20

Again, I finished first in my heat, though a 17-18yo was first overall at 22.07. The lack of practice starts hurt a little more here, since I haven’t been practicing any curve starts.

• I need to figure out how to stay cool and hydrated in between races. Despite all the Gatorade and water, and despite staying out of the sun, my calves cramped a bit in between. I was able to work it out, but it definitely says something about my race preparation.
• My first 50 meters were strong—I had basically caught the runner to my outside by that point.
• I think I backed off a little too much on the second half of the curve. I need to practice floating more.
• Coming out of the curve, I did a decent job re-accelerating—this is where I think I pulled away from the rest of the pack.
• My speed endurance still isn’t good enough for the 200, and my form suffered tremendously. My feet were hitting my opposite calves towards the end, which means I must have been landing across my hips pretty significantly.
• I think I need better technique cues for when I’m tired. I’ve been focusing mostly on pumping my arms through their full range of motion, but I’m concerned that just leads to overstriding. I’ll have to film a couple hard practice reps with different cues to see what works.

Overall, I’m happy to come away with a win in two races, and encouraged by my 100 meter result. I’ll have to keep working on the 200—it’s good to have focus areas instead of just trying to generally get faster.

I have a one-week break this week, then I’m either running in Marietta at the 2nd Annual Sunset Summer Classic or back to Oxford for the 3rd Annual Pure Elite Burnout!