Race Report: 4x400m relay and 200m at All-Comers

So, every year, the Atlanta Track Club has about a month of All-Comers track meets, where they open up the track at a local university and encourage the community and membership alike to come out and try their hand (or feet?) at all sorts of track and field events. I hit this event up for the first time last year (first meet, second meet), because it was part of the Grand Prix Series.

This week was the first meet with a Grand Prix event for this year, the 200m. It seemed silly to come all the way down for a race that would take less than a minute, so I decided to put together another relay team too. Running for a total of two minutes validated the 1.5 hours of extra drive time. :)


4x400m relay, lead leg @ 5:40/mi (ish)
We couldn't get the whole crew down to Emory for the Atlanta Track Club All-Comers meet, but we were able to field a team of 2 regulars, 1 occasional, and 1 honorary #10KTuesday-er. This was great fun; we had two other teams of Run Leads/In-Training Participants "racing" with us. I love being part of this awesome community. 

I had no real goal for this race other than pushing "comfortably hard". Last year's race 400m time was 1:27 (at ~3mo pregnant). My goal split for track repeats is 1:45. I figured I'd probably be around a 1:30 doing a "comfortable push". When I got going, I felt like molasses. I'd warmed up, but not nearly enough. It felt like I was literally slugging the entire time, desperately trying to chase down the other RL in lane 4. Oof.

Turns out, I wasn't as slow as I thought. I forgot to stop my watch when I passed the baton, but clicked it off several seconds after I finished at 1:28. The guys doing some "unofficial" timing said I came in around the low 1:20s!!! WIN.

Oh, good. I"m not leaning BACKWARDS like I did in the 4x400m last year

200m Grand Prix in ~35.13s (@ 4:43/mi)
How do you prepare for a race that's over in less than a minute? How do you even estimate how long it'll take you to run half a loop around the track? No idea. I'm still learning this whole track thing. :P 

I had a seed time of 45.19, which I got by taking a few seconds off my ATC Indicator 200m repeat goal of 52s. I was put in the fifth heat, lane 4, right next to a friend of mine. Hooray! Unlike the 400m, when the gun went off, I felt GOOD.  I'd had a conversation this morning with Courtney during #10KTuesday about my form (how I tend to lean back), and she gave me some tips about how to lean forward throughout a run (not just uphills) and how to engage my arms. I thought about those things during the brief 200m race, and also an old tip Jerry had given me about toe-heeling my entire foot along the surface to really engage my glutes and push off. 

Not only did I beat my expected time (which, honestly, probably isn't THAT big of an accomplishment since I didn't estimate it correctly/appropriately), but I had the pleasure of winning my heat (again, probably a bit of a given, since I seeded myself wrong, but it was still awesome) with a time around 35.13s. WOW! Can we just take a minute to appreciate the fact that my pace for that run started with a 4?!?! Hot damn. 

<3 track meets-- such a confidence booster!!!

Family Fun Evening at the Track