Red Tuesday

Seemed simple enough. A 2M warm-up, 5 1Ks and then a cool down. I decided to forgo running on the local high school track (which Nitmos is so fond of running on) and hit up the track at the local Big Ten University. The idea being that faster people than me run on this track and are paid given scholarships to do so; therefore I’d assuredly run faster on their track.*

In route to the track I had to weave through hordes of incoming froshs getting their official campus tour during orientation. Yep, wave after wave of wide-eyed Spartans learning the names of buildings they will assuredly puke on next fall.

When I finally arrive a sign informs me the track is closed for ‘varsity athletics.’ Phffffttttt. Well great, how am I going to do my 1000m repeats? I can’t just run on the sidewalk because I’ll be weaving through the mob of walkers, I had to find an alternative course.

I finally located a suitable stretch (only crossing two partially busy roads) and begin the torture of 1K repeats. Temp, 77 and sunny. Only one cloud in the sky and there is no way that little sucker is even going close to the sun. And it was dry, dryer than my sense of humor…that dry. One red angry sun.

Then another red light (as in a red traffic light) during my third repeat. Rapidly approaching the red light I could see a bus fast approaching (stuffed full of incoming froshs I’m sure)—decisions time, try to outrun the bus or stop. The knowledge that a bus doesn’t stop easily and my willingness to risk death resulted in my fastest repeat.

Then another red light, the failure of my iPod—stupid battery. But the most consistent red light was that of my fails for my repeats. I was about 2 to 7 seconds off for all of them.

However, despite the epic failure, I’m sure the hot temperature was the reason I was only slightly slow. Had this run occurred in more moderate temps, I believe I would have made it. It was this thought that I held onto so tightly as I cried myself to sleep last night.

* The worst part was that they weren’t even using the track, merely the filed within the track.