Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Your biggest personal moment of sports glory.

The_Jazz · 02-20-2008, 05:36 PM

I actually spent a while thinking about this, trying to figure out what qualifies as my own *personal* moment. I won state championships in high school, conference championships in college, hardware at nationals and 3 years after college won several hundred dollars in prize money at various races, outright won a road race with 19,000+ runners and was on pace through mile 15 to qualify for the Olympic Trials in a marathon. But while I'm proud of those accomplishments, I think I'm most proud of a cross country workout:

My junior year of college, in the tuneup meet before conference, the consensus decision was to "run through it", i.e. not actually race but treat it as a hard workout. It was designed to teach negative miles splits (each mile being faster than the last) over a 5 mile course. The first mile was at supposed to be at 6:15 with each mile getting 15 seconds faster than the last and the last mile being as hard as you could go.

In the first mile, a pack of about 10 of us ran at the absolute back of the field. It was basically our varsity team, a few alternates and some of the guys that made the team as great as it was by being making up for their lack of talent with being the heart and sould of the team. We coasted through the first mile on pace and picked it up for the second. By the end of 4th mile, 6 of us had pulled within striking distance of the biggest lead pack.

I ran the last mile in 4:42 over hills and on grass. After having run 4 miles leading up to that. It wasn't good enough to win (one of my teammates did 4:31 and got the V), but it was good enough for 4th place.

The team was banned from that race by the organizers who didn't like the fact that we didn't take it seriously and tried to "show up" the home team. And the fact that we were back at that course 2 weeks later for Regionals and won that made it even more sweet.

02-20-2008, 05:36 PM	#11 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	I actually spent a while thinking about this, trying to figure out what qualifies as my own personal moment. I won state championships in high school, conference championships in college, hardware at nationals and 3 years after college won several hundred dollars in prize money at various races, outright won a road race with 19,000+ runners and was on pace through mile 15 to qualify for the Olympic Trials in a marathon. But while I'm proud of those accomplishments, I think I'm most proud of a cross country workout: My junior year of college, in the tuneup meet before conference, the consensus decision was to "run through it", i.e. not actually race but treat it as a hard workout. It was designed to teach negative miles splits (each mile being faster than the last) over a 5 mile course. The first mile was at supposed to be at 6:15 with each mile getting 15 seconds faster than the last and the last mile being as hard as you could go. In the first mile, a pack of about 10 of us ran at the absolute back of the field. It was basically our varsity team, a few alternates and some of the guys that made the team as great as it was by being making up for their lack of talent with being the heart and sould of the team. We coasted through the first mile on pace and picked it up for the second. By the end of 4th mile, 6 of us had pulled within striking distance of the biggest lead pack. I ran the last mile in 4:42 over hills and on grass. After having run 4 miles leading up to that. It wasn't good enough to win (one of my teammates did 4:31 and got the V), but it was good enough for 4th place. The team was banned from that race by the organizers who didn't like the fact that we didn't take it seriously and tried to "show up" the home team. And the fact that we were back at that course 2 weeks later for Regionals and won that made it even more sweet. __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo