Men 800 Meter Run

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    Facility: * 1:50.79  5/20/2010   Peter Najem, Keene State                 

 Meet Record: # 1:50.79  5/20/2010   Peter Najem, Keene State                 

    Name                    Year Team                    Finals

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  1 Josh Guarino                 Syr. Chargers          1:51.89 

  2 Sam Wagner                   Vassar                 1:52.42 

  3 Zach Williams                Vassar                 1:53.62 

  4 David Geary                  Ithaca                 1:54.36 

  5 Dylan Lowry                  Bronco TC              1:54.57 

  6 Conor Cashin                 Cobleskill             1:54.93 

  7 Tom Haskins                  Oneonta                1:55.11 

  8 David Bohunicky              Oneonta                1:55.29 

  9 Kyle Howerton                Oneonta                1:55.45 

 10 Chris Harvey                 Oneonta                1:56.58 

 11 Nate Weber                   Oneonta                1:56.94 

 12 Dennis Ryan                  Ithaca                 1:57.20 

 13 Dan Bruton                   Oneonta                1:57.45 

 14 Michael Pressler             Unattached             1:57.83 

 15 Greg Swiatocha               Westchester            1:58.09 

 16 Joe Johnson                  Unattached             1:58.12 

 17 Bobby Gallant                Oneonta                1:58.13 

 18 Joseph Livote                RPI                    1:58.76 

 19 Ohure Sam                    Bronco TC              1:58.82 

 20 Namib Harris                 Cobleskill             1:59.25 

 21 Matt Blair                   Vassar                 1:59.96 

 22 Nicholas Athanasatos         Ithaca                 2:00.27 

 23 Tom Bohlin                   Ramapo                 2:00.34 

 24 Joelsen Resimo               Bronco TC              2:00.82 

 25 Jay Berube                   Oneonta                2:01.82 

 26 Justin Craddock              Syr. Chargers          2:04.35 

 27 Pete Schweitzer              Bronco TC              2:06.34 

 -- Chris Popovici               Syr. Chargers              DNF 

 -- Sean Daly                    Alumni                     DNF 

 -- Timothy Metivier             Colgate                    DNF 

Ok So I raced  an 800 on the track and as you can see above it didn’t go too well.  I suppose an argument could be made that all the talk and hype I was putting out there in the past blogs was just that…talk, but I don’t really think so.

So let’s look at the time, 2:04 is horrible, yes, horrible. But I’m not worried, it was the first 800 in 3 years, and I drove 4 and a half hours before the race to get there. I felt sluggish during the warmup as well.  So considering that, I’m just happy to not have a dnf next to my name.

I think the main goal was to just get through it, me and my coach haven’t done a lot of 800 specific work , just 2 workouts, most of the work we have been putting in is mile/5k oriented so to expect a fast time at all is kinda out of the question.

One last thing/justification about the time/place is that most of the people are either finishing or about to finish their season. they have or are peaking. This was a last chance meet, so I can’t possibly expect to compete with people who are peaking for now. Again I’ve done two workouts for the 800 everything else has been aerobically oriented.

Now that we have got the justifications out of the way, I finally have a real gauge to see where I’m.at  I’m 14 seconds off my PR and 11 seconds off where I was 3 years ago. I know it’s going to take some hard work to drop the times down but I’ll keep saying this. Something is different this year. I’m willing to put in the work, and the times aren’t phasing me mentally.

Saturdays race in my mind was just the start of a good 4 years, I’m excited to see a slow time in a way, mainly because it will be kinda refreshing to track my progress, since I have A LOT to work on.

2 more thoughts,

-       The first is mental toughness, in the race I was tested, I wasn’t running fast, nor was I in the hunt to win or even place but I really wanted to step off the track at 500 meters. It wasn’t pain so much as embarrassment. Yes I was hurting, yes it was unnatural and uncomfortable, but mentally I was just frustrated with not really even being a competitor. But I just buckled down and ran the race. I finished got a time in. Put on my warmups and moved on. Its that mentality I think I need to keep. I just need to keep on keeping on. I can be mad at my lack of fitness but I can’t let it affect the work ive put in or need to put in

-       Secondly I think this piggybacks off the last thing is The real test of my mentality is now bouncing back. Putting in this work for the next few weeks until I race again. Whether it be another 800 or amile I just need to keep taking this day by day and keep telling myself that if I keep working hard the times WILL follow. Don’t try to run 80 miles this week because I feel like I need to do more. Just go out and do what my coach is giving me.