Indoor Track Racing

Indoor Track Races by Charities Challenge at Bethel University, Snelling at I-694. We enjoy these events and wish there were more than five per year. Two have gone by now, including this one, with three left in January and February 2010. We missed the first one because we were in New Orleans, but glad we made this one. The deal is that you pay a single fee for running the first step, and then you can run to your hearts content (being careful not to be in the way of racers) and you can enter any number of the events.

Today there were races for 60 m, 200 m, 400 m, 800 m, one mile, and 1-mile race-walk. Most of those races had more than one heat, and if so, you can enter multiple heats if you’re a glutton for punishment. One guy who did that says "train by racing!" Indeed.

There is a good spirit in that place. People are very, very supportive and there are plenty of spectators. Todays racers ranged in age from 5 to 71, including some of the best runners in Minnesota. I mostly just ran around the track today, both directions to reduce the annoyance on my adductors, but I did run the 200 m in 39 seconds, four or five seconds longer than my best time in 2007. I also ran an untimed 60 m dash by myself, just to see how it felt. Felt good!

Otherwise, 8 miles of running, not all at once but also not including any walking or racing. Most of that was at a pace of 9:15 or so I think. It’s a masterpiece!


Breakfast with a Christmas theme.  Indeed there is oatmeal under there.  The milk is actually organic kefir.