For anyone that is familiar with my neighborhood, a new high school was built in 2010 costing the city a small fortune. It was so state of the art and expensive that the building made national news. For some reason, I have never made it to the school since the opening despite running by it on a number of occasions. Fast forward to today and I received an email saying that track practice was cancelled. With the cancellation, we were supposed to find a track to run 20x400 with 200 breaks. The options of where to run where flying through my head with the first thought being Harvard. I then decided to see the new track at NNHS as I assumed it wouldn't be crowded.
I showed up to the track around 7 and it was amazing. In perfect condition, the 400 track had 2-3 other people running around it. There was a cute old couple watching runners, a private soccer practice going on, some yoga and a family teaching their 3 year old catch. I felt like part of the community as I joined in past the gates. We have been practicing on a 200 meter track all season and upping it to 400 took some time to get used to. Once warmed up, I was in a groove. One other runner seemed to have a similar workout and we found ourselves playing an odd game of chase. About 8 repeats in and these rather odd men came onto the track. Not to stereotype where I live, but these men did not fit in to the scene. They were in jeans, dress shoes and oddly one had their hands down their pants. I got nervous and pictured seeing a fun article in the TAB the next day. I clung as close to the 2 male runners as possible and finished another 2 repeats before getting totally skeeved out. As it was now dark out, I figured the halfway point was a good break point. I headed home and regrouped. The old Jess would have called the 10 repeats a good run and have been done for the night, but I knew I couldn't do that. The marathon is 5 weeks away and every run is as important as the next. I soon remembered this awesome park near my house that I run by each day. A quick input in mapmyrun and I realized that each side of the park was .13 miles. This meant I could do 2 sides of it and get in my 400.
I regrouped and headed off to the park doing 2 repeats along the way. It was still beautiful out and I ended up bumping into a neighbor or two along the way. I made it to the park and did my first 4 repeats. As I hit 16 repeats, I was tempted to bag the rest of the run. I was tired, it was dark and I had almost no fuel left. I realized that quitting was not an option and I gave it my all. Soon enough I was done with the run and jogging on home. I had made the 20 repeats with a cool down!
I won't lie, 20 repeats at a 5k pace was intense as it was 5 miles of speed with an additional 3 of cool down. When I was done, I was happy that it 1. was over and 2. that I completed them without bagging on the last few. I can't believe that this track practice marked the turn towards 1 month left!
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