On July 28, I competed in my first of two race-walk events at the National Senior Games in Iowa. Today’s event was 1500 meters. That’s three and 3/4 laps around a track.
The National Senior Games have events in two dozen different sports, including running and race-walking. I qualified for these events by competing in the Minnesota Senior Games last summer.
I was originally signed
up for four events. I was going to do
the 5K road race on July 24, the 10K road race on July 26, the 1500 meter
race-walk today, and the 5000 meter race-walk tomorrow. I decided to skip the 5K run, so I could stay
in St. Cloud long enough to do the entire Summer Camp Series. Then I skipped the 10K run, so I could to the
Xenia Avenue Marathon.
I can’t run a 5K or 10K
fast enough to place in my age group.
These events are too large and competitive. By skipping those two events, I was able to
run three extra marathons instead.
The host city for this year's National Senior Games is Des Moines, but the race-walk events are being held 50
miles away in Ames. If I was also doing
the running events, I would’ve stayed in Des Moines. Since I’m only doing the race-walking events,
I decided to stay in Ames.
Unfortunately, I still had to do athlete check-in and packet pickup in
West Des Moines.
I drove to Ames
yesterday, arriving in the early afternoon.
After checking in at my hotel and doing some unpacking, I drove over to
the Cyclone Sports Complex, to check out the race venue for today’s race.
I'm wearing the same race
bibs for both of my race-walking events.
There’s one to wear in front and another to wear on my back. Both race bibs have my number, but the front
bib has my name, and the back bib has my age.
I was pleased to see that
everyone would have their age on their back.
There’s more than one age group in each heat, so it’s helpful to know
who I’m completing with and who I can ignore.
Ames is a college
town. I found a good pizza place near
the Iowa State University campus. After
dinner, I went to bed as early as I could.
After the last day of the
Summer Camp Series, my left Achille tendon was tight. I rested the next two
days, but I could feel it during the Xenia Avenue Marathon on Saturday. After that race, it was worse. I’ve done everything I know to recover, but I
went into this morning’s race knowing it might be an issue. For most of my daily activities, I’ve been putting
some padding under my heel, to ease the tension on my Achilles tendon. I wasn’t comfortable doing that for a
race-walking event. I wasn’t sure how
that would alter my stride. I just had
to hope for the best.
My heat was the fifth of
the morning. It didn’t start until 9:20
AM, which gave me time to eat breakfast at the hotel.
As I was eating
breakfast, I noticed that it had rained overnight. I expected the track to be wet. I went to the track a little early, so I
could watch some of the other heats and observe the condition of the track.
As I expected, there were a
few puddles on the track, including one in the inside lane right at the start
of a turn.
There were four age
groups in my heat. It included all men
between the ages of 50 and 69. In all,
there were 19 of us. We were assigned
hip numbers based on our qualifying times, and we lined up across the track in
order of our numbers. I was seeded 15th
out of 19.
Two years ago, at the National
Senior Games in Pittsburgh, I walked the 1500 in 9:01, and I placed third in my
age group. This year, I had lower
expectations. I’ve done very little
race-walk training in the last month.
Based on the training I had done before that, I expected to be about 20
seconds slower this year. It didn’t seem
likely that I would be fast enough to win a medal.
For the first 100 meters,
I tried to outrace people to the turn.
Eight other walkers got to the turn ahead of me. I started at a pace that already had me out
of breath, so I knew I wouldn’t catch up to any of these eight guys. They quickly pulled away.
After completing one full
lap, I started to hear other walkers behind me.
I could see their shadows on the track.
Three guys were right on my tail.
I tried to stay ahead of them, but one of them surged ahead of me before
we reached the turn. As he went by, I
saw that he was 57 years old. He wasn’t in my age
group.
I held my position going
around the next turn. Halfway down the
straightaway, I saw one of the other guys pulling ahead of me. He also wasn’t in my age group.
The third guy went around
me in the next turn. He wasn’t in my age
group either. That was a relief. Had I not known the ages of these three
walkers, I would’ve wrecked myself trying to keep up with them. Instead, I was able to maintain a sustainable
pace and focus on keeping my knees straight.
Judging at the National
Senior Games is usually pretty strict.
Two guys got disqualified in this race.
Nobody was right behind me, so I was able to focus on keeping my form
legal, rather than fighting to be a few seconds faster.
With 300 meters to go, I noticed that the guy ahead of me was starting to slow down. I made a point of passing him before the next turn, so I wouldn't be bottled up behind him.
I kept up the same pace
for the last 200 meters . I finished in
9:22. That put me in fourth place in my
age group. The top three get medals. Places four through eight get ribbons. As it turns out, there were only six men in
my age group.
Both my time and my place
were about what I expected, so I can’t be too disappointed. I can try again for a medal in tomorrow’s 5000-meter
race. In the past, I’ve been stronger in
that event.
The best news of the day
is that my Achilles tendon didn’t bother me at all during the race, and it also
didn’t tighten up afterwards.
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