Drake Relays Results and the Story From LA to Ann Arbor...

After a long, strange two weeks I feel like I've got my running back on track for the spring. The condensed version is this: I went to Los Angeles on Easter weekend for a couple meets. I ran the 800 at Pomona Pitzer and got a new personal best in rainy and unideal conditions. With that effort and my recent 5k personal best I figured that I would be set for a solid performance in the mile the next night despite little specific preparation. The invitational mile at Mt. SAC was a disaster. I was never in the race and ran 4:07 by myself off the back of the pack. Afterwards there was a burning lump in my hamstring that made it hard to walk back to my shoes. I couldn't cool down and that obviously changed training for the next week. It was a tough weekend considering the result, my new found injury, and the fact that I missed Easter with my family. After feeling sorry for myself for about a week I was finally able to get a little quality in and decided to go ahead with the mile at Drake. It was windy and rainy and the stands were far more empty than the typical Drake sellout. A collegiate athlete took it out and we were roughly 61 for the first quarter mile. At the half mile we were 2:03 and the pace was slowing. Within the next 200 meters the pace slowed more and since I was near the front I spilled into the lead with a lap and a half to go. I lead threw the wind on the home stretch and even though the pack spread out I didn't shake everybody. I ended up third in 4:03.41, which is an outdoor personal best for the mile, despite the terrible conditions. After Drake my good friend, Mark Misch, presented me with an opportunity for a solid 1500 this Friday in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His friend, Nick Willis, will be setting the pace and he's giving me a place to stay and showing me some serious Kiwi hospitality. So here I am in Ann Arbor, preparing for a race tomorrow night here at the University of Michigan. Here's a link to the full results at Drake: http://drakerelays.com/06results/results/AllColResults.html Here's a link to some information about Friday's race, Len Paddock Invitational: http://www.nzrun.com/ (Check out the nickname...)