I'm finally feeling recovered enough to jot down quick race summaries for a race report. I bit off more than normal and it flattened me this afternoon. I had originally scheduled a double this morning in the mile and 800m in that order. Some runners talked me into entering the 3000m after I had already run those. It wasn't pretty.

Mile:  I entered a seed time of 8:10. I  haven't been able to do much in the way of speedwork and my best mile last year was 7:57 outdoors, so that seemed like a reasonable time. My only real interval workout in more than a month was 10 x 200m in 60 seconds, hence I thought 8:00 would be pushing it. there were only 4 of us in the slow heat and the other three went out very quick. The first 200m was still faster than I wanted at :55 but I tried to settled into 60 second laps and hold that as long as I could. Each lap I expected to hear that I'd slowed down but I held steady longer than I thought I'd be able to, finally reaching the last lap in 6:55. I managed a very minor kick over the last 60m for a 7:53.74 finish. Needless to say I was very pleased and expect to do better once I get in some regular speedwork.

800m:  My legs still felt trashed right up to lining up for the race. I'm guessing we had about 25 minutes between races. A friend who normally runs the 200m/400m double decided to run the 400m/800m double so we planned to race this together aiming for a 3:40 despite having entered a 3:45 seed time. Of course when I entered that seed time I hadn't anticipated being able to run 7:53 in the mile. After finishing last in the mile I was surprised to find myself in second after a lap, which we reached in :53. The next 2 laps were a little slow, a pair of :57s, but I kicked in hard from 100m out to finish in 3:38.73. I was amazed that I opened up a big gap with that sprint. We were bunched at the start of the last lap, but no one else broke 3:42. I'm sure I could have run faster considering I ran the last lap in :51.

While I didn't race the 3000m, I decided to enter at the last minute to get in a good workout and hope for something like a tempo run. It was tough to even finish and maintain anything more than a jog. I finished just over 18:00 (9:40 mile pace) and was lapped by everyone in the field. It was a good exercise in mental toughness and discipline, but I don't plan repeating that any time soon.

My next race is another track meet at the same venue and most likely against the same competition.

I'm glad that after all those years of running, you can still surprise yourself with speed. How encouraging it must feel! Congratulations on two most excellent races and one tough training run/race. Three in a row in one day has got to be tough. Bravo, George!

That's a great result, and very inspriring to read. Enjoy a good rest now.

Great showing George!!! Congrats!!

Great job on the three races at the track met, George.  That sounds like a tough bit of racing.  You really nailed the 1 mile race, coming in much faster than you expected!  The 800 too!  What a fantastic race!

It's always great to surprise yourself.  Congratulations!

Dude, you're definitely one of my heroes. Great running.

For the Chicago area (and all of Illinois) your best starting place would be the local USATF association of Illinois and after that to contact active USATF clubs in your association.

Current track and field meet schedule for USATF Illinois. The meets on 1/19 and 2/2 are at my HS alma mater but the indoor track was added after I graduated.