Way back in 8th grade, I thought I would be cool and try out for the track team.  The only spot they had open for a hefty gal like myself was a thrower.  Go figure.  So I spent many a days at track practice goofing around and attempting to throw a shot while I laughed at and felt sorry for those “real track people” who had to spend the entire practice running around the oval.  Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.

Fast forward to this week.  Our Knoxville Track Club has been hosting a  track meet series called Thursdays at the Track to raise money for their annual trip to Hood to Coast.  Since H2C is near and dear to my heart, I wanted to help out in any way I could.   After a few Facebook messages, it was determined that I would run the track meet on a relay team.  Last week’s relay event was the 4X400 so I kept telling myself that I could do anything for one lap.  I also found out Meggie was in town and after a few email exchanges I was even more excited to go and meet her.  

Ashley and I made the drive over and pondered over what the track meet would actually be like.  I assumed it would mostly be elite type runners wearing short shorts and blowing me out of the water.  This proved to be true, but wasn’t that bad!  We got to watch a few events before ours so we had time to stretch and calm our nerves.   Finally it was time for our event and there was a lot of confusion as to which lane we were in, when we could switch into the first lane, and how to grab the baton.  I just followed those who were also leg 3 runners.  We cheered our lungs out for our first runner, LC!  She had a balling first lap then handed off the baton to my best friend Ashley!  It was hard to gauge how fast our team was running since we had the faster runners blowing by us but there was so much excitement in the air I could hardly contain myself!  Ashley came barreling around the corner and I stood in the lane ready to grab the baton like a champ.  I grabbed it and took off like a bat out of hell.  Since I knew there were still runners behind me, I stayed in lane 2 so that I wouldn’t slow down the faster runners.

Some people blew past me like I was standing still yet I felt like I was going ALL out and couldn’t believe it seemed so slow.  My Garmin died while waiting so I didn’t have an exact time for what my lap was but I can guarantee that it was my fastest 400 ever because there was no pacing myself, just balls to the wall, no slowing down, about to throw up running.  And it was awesome.  I handed off to Tersea who took off and finished strong for our team!    

I’m not sure what our official time was, but the other girls on my team all ran their laps around 1:40ish so I know that it had to be sub 8 which to me is AMAZING.  Yeah it was a hard lap and yeah it was my first track meet but I am so thankful I did it and stepped out of my comfort zone.  This is something I never would have dreamed of doing but hey guess what I did it and had three other awesome ladies to share a great experience with.

Have you ever ran in a track meet?  What is your favorite track workout?