The All Comers Mile and Star of the North Games

Last Tuesday was the All-Comers 1 Mile at Soldiers Field.  I've never ran just 1 mile to see how fast I could do it. Jace has, though.  His best is 6:45 which was an out-n-back and was on a nice cool morning.  I thought he'd do the All-Comers around 7 minutes.  Its in the evening, energy may be running low, its a cinder/sandy-ish track, and...it was 90 degrees.  We would be running 4 times around.

The did two heats: 1st heat was for people who thought they'd go around or under 7 minutes; 2nd heat was for estimated time of over 7 minutes.  Jace and I went in Wave 1.  IT WAS HOT.  The first lap I did at 1:14.  There was one guy in front of me--he was at about 1:10.  He got faster as the laps went on, I got slower.  By the end of lap 2, I was ready to cash in.  In lap 3, a couple guys passed me.  In lap 4, a couple more.  I was falling apart.  Finally, I finished in 5:34.  The fastest time was 4:30!!!    Jace did AWESOME with a 7:18.  When he was finishing he last lap, I thought he was barely going to make 8 minutes, but MAN, does he have a kick.  It never ceases to amaze me.  His last 100 yards in any race 400 or over, he can run faster than when he does just a 100 yard/meter race. Or at least it looks faster.  Either way, he always finishes strong, and only takes a few seconds to catch his breath.  After the second heat finished, Jace said "Why did I have to do the first one?"  He saw that many of the peoples times were slower than his and felt like he would have done better in the 2nd heat.  He probably would have done better as far as finishing rank, but he has complained about not having anyone to chase.  I was afraid that he could possibly finish 1st in the second heat--then he'd complain he didn't have anyone to chase...  He would have finished 10th in heat two of about 30. So, I guess either way, he would have had people to chase...and lap.

RESULTS Heat 1  RESULTS Heat 2

Star of the North Games
This past Saturday we spent a good part of the day at the Star of the North Games.  We signed Jace up for the 100, 200, 400, 800, 1500, and long jump. The nice thing about it was that they did several heat so he could be with kids older and faster, same age, etc, and then then sort it out by age group (AG) at the end.  The bad thing was, well there were two.  If you are only trying to win or do well in your heat, kids can end up basing their effort on who is in their heat.  Then when its sorted out, you may have been in the top 3 of your heat, but if there were kids in the same AG in another heat that ran a faster time, then you could drop down.  This was hard for Jace, and several other kids, to understand.  The 'bad things' were actually good because it sort of built in a bit of learning.  By the end of the day, Jace had it figured out.  He is a little different from other kids with running--he doesn't like the short, fast races.  As they get longer, he likes them more--all the way up to the two mile (which is his favorite, but not offered).  Other kids seem to like the shorter ones--as the races got longer, the AG's got smaller.  Again, though, they ran in heats so there was no shortage of competition. 

At the end of the day, Jace walked away with some hardware--they gave Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals out for placing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively.

Here's how he placed:

• 100 meter: 6th of 11 (17.68 sec)
• 200 meter: 6th of 12 (38.89 sec)
• 400 meter: 2nd of 6 (1:24.62)
• 800 meter: 1st of 2 (3:20.63)
• 1500 meter: 1st of 2 (6:33)
• Long Jump: 4th of 8 (8 ft, 0 inches)

Oh yeah, we scrapped together a 4 person team for the 4 x 100 relay.  They did one heat and Jace, with 3 other guys in their 30's and 40's, took 3rd in the heat of 6 teams.  They awarded them 1st for their AG. I don't know how they figured that, but either way, they only took 1 min 2 seconds for the race. The fastest team in the heat were 3 HS track athletes and a 39 year old guy who did it in 47 seconds. 

STAR OF THE NORTH Track & Field Results