That is fantastic.  Do you remember how you felt during each of the laps?

Probably really fresh, cool and calm. 

Nice little report; thank you.

First lap I felt nervous. I was trying to find a good spot close to the inside. I think there were 18 people in my heat. Ugh. But after the first 200 I was inside and feeling good. I was pushing but afraid to push too hard. Second lap I was pretty comfortable. I passed 3 guys in a group right after a turn and someone growled at me, I swear!!! That made me . The third lap I just felt like I needed to keep doing what I was doing. The last lapand a half I felt like I had something left and started to get up on my toes.. I passed another couple of guys after the turn and then was passed in the last 50 by 2 young guys. That was the hardest push at the finish I ever had. I felt a little breathless but good. I didn't notice my splits. I wore my Garmin but haven't downloaded it yet.

You ran a kickass mile and were not grimacing in pain and hurting like hell.....we all hate you.

Congrats Kirsten - that is awesome!!  I've only done a couple of track races and I swear every time I've thought I was going to die!

Sounds like the apple falls close to the tree, eh?

Nice job on that mile wannabe.  We had a road mile last Sunday (attended by fast club age-groupers) and you would have taken 5th with that time in 40-49 and 1st in 45-49.  Here's my track story from this morning:

Today was 3000 / 1500 / 800 day at the club.  I ran the 3000 skipped the 1500 and ran the 800.  None of the fast runners ran the 3 (they ran the 1500) so I found myself leading the 3000 from the start and held to the end.  Not a good time for me (11:02) but this girl was breathing down my neck the whole race.  I was able to put a little distance on her the last 300m and held her off.  So then we skip the 1500 and line up for the 8 and there she is right next to me at the start (waterfall start).  We took off and a couple high school kids immediately shot out to take big leads on the old guys and gals.  Next two are me and this girl.  She's right behind me the entire way.  On the last turn she was close enough to me to that I could see her shadow and I knew I was in trouble.  Came out of the turn and I go into my 'sprint' (LOL) and she smoothly goes past me and beats me by 1.1 second.  Damm, talk about getting chicked in a most humiliating way - outkicked on the track in the last 100!  Anyway, talking to her later she tells me she ran in college for Cal Poly and had a PR of 2:09 for the 800.  Now I'm not feeling so bad as I watched the NCAA women's 800 today which was won in 2:02.   Apparently, she's coming back to racing in a new age group - 40-45. 

All I can say is that the track can be very humbling.  Next time I'll have to try to get a bigger lead on her so she can't outkick me.

PS - I wasn't sure whether to write 'girl', 'lady', 'female' in the above paragraph.  No disrespect meant by using 'girl'.  Whatever, she kicked my a$$.

I would never SAY that!

But using your elbows are OK. During the race, anyway. Your daughter would approve.