First Track Meet

This week I had my first track meet. October was the month of the Universiada, sports competitions between facultades at the university. I’m officially in the facultad of mathematical and physical sciences. I don’t think we had a team in any sport except in track. Four of us, three girls and a guy, competed for math and physics in track. The competition was two days; the first day I ran the 100-meter dash and the second day I ran the 200-meter dash and the 4x400-meter relay. I have never run the 100-meter dash in a race before. I don’t think I’m probably capable of running fast enough to ever be one of the best 100-meter racers. There were 6 runners in the race and I came in 4th. I didn’t have a chance at first, second, or third, but I think I was well placed in 4th. I didn’t come in last, which meant I accomplished my goal in that race.


The 100-meter dash.

In the 200-meter race, I was up against three runners I knew were very fast, I’d seen them run in the 400-meter dash, and another girl who I’d never seen run. I figured I’d come in way behind the top three and just hoped to come in before the other girl. The race started and one, then two girls flew past me. The third one passed me at the end of the curve, but I managed to stay with her and almost pass her before we crossed the line. She got third, but I think had we had another 10 feet in the race, I would have caught her. I was disappointed, but felt good to have come so close when I thought I didn’t have a chance.


A teammate and I watching the races.

After finishing this race, the other two physics girls approached me to see if I’d be willing to stay and run the 4x400 relay if we could find a fourth person to complete our physics team. I agreed (the 4x400 relay has always been my favorite race). I was skeptical that I’d be able to run well, since I expected the altitude would affect me more in this race than the 100 or 200 (the 100 and 200 are short enough that my body didn’t really have time to realize it didn’t have oxygen). The time for the race came and we decided I would run first. They wanted me to run last because they thought I’d be the fastest (which I was positive I wouldn’t be, even though the rest of them run 800 meters and above), but I convinced them to let me go first. I was also the only one who knew (sort of) how to start with blocks, so that made sense.


Me starting the 4x400 meter dash.

I was running against a high school girl who was running for the other relay (the rest of the girls were in college, but they needed a fourth and the high school girl is fast; she ran her 400 meter dash in 1:03 minutes!). There were only two teams running, so we were guaranteed at least second place. That was nice because I didn’t feel like there was any pressure. One of my quads hurt a little, so I figured I would just run as hard as I wanted without worrying too much about whether or not I stayed with the other girl, something I thought I had no chance of since she ran a 1:03 400 the day before.

The gun went off and I started running at a nice pace. The girl passed me and I thought, “oh well, there she goes.” Then I realized she wasn’t actually running that much faster than me. I actually had a chance of staying with her! I picked it up a bit and managed to stay with her pretty much the whole time. She handed off the baton a second before me: she ran a 1:04 and I a 1:05!! I was so surprised when my teammate told me my split. I practically started jumping up and down. Running a 400 in 1:05 was what I ran in high school (my best time was a 1:04) and it’s what I ran at the one meet I ran at Smith. I couldn’t believe that I managed to run that time here. I’ve been feeling totally out of shape and unable to run in practice because of the altitude. It was amazing to run that despite the lack of oxygen! I think I’m probably dying in practice because I’m running for a lot longer. I must have reached a point where a single 400 is now within my abilities while running three or four of them in practice is still out of my range. I guess there’s hope for me after all!

After my leg of the race, the next girl came in neck to neck with the other team’s runner. In the hand off of the baton, my team dropped the baton, so we lost about 100 meters on the other team. Needless to say, after that we got second place (which probably would have happened anyway because the last two runners on the other team won first and second in the college 400 meter dash). Still, we got medals and got to climb up onto the podium to receive them in the name of math and physics. It was pretty exciting! I now have a silver track medal from Mexico hanging on my wall. ☺


The first and second place teams on the podium.