Every year at this time the Minnesota Distance Running Association puts on their Meet of Miles at the indoor track at the U of MN's field house. It's a pretty bare bones affair. Show up, pay your $5 and sign up for the heat you want. They start at 4:00-4:30 expected finishers, then 4:30-5:00, then 5:00-5:15 and so on. There are heats for anybody who wants to run a mile. I've ran this the past two years and it's a fun way to break up the monotony of winter training. Plus I just don't race mile races often, especially on an indoor track so it's unique as well.

I signed up for the 5:15-5:30 heat based on....I'm not sure really other than a feeling that was a good spot for me and that spot was around a 5:20-5:30. Plus 40 seconds per lap is a nice round number to remember when I see the clock every lap. (200m track)*

There were about fifteen runners in my race, two rows, six lanes in a waterfall start. I started in lane 1 as I really don't want to get boxed in. I moved to the front right away and had someone on my shoulder. I hate the first lap because as I said I don't race miles and can't "feel" that pace like I'd like to. But I came around the last turn on lap 1 and saw the clock and knew I was pretty spot on. I then hit my goal 40-42 second/lap pace pretty consistently the first six laps.

During laps 3 and 4 I was passed by five runners however they didn't really pull away so I'm not sure why they moved around me as I remained at a pretty consistent pace. There were 2-3 runners immediately behind me as well so we had a nice pack going during the middle of the race. The one thing I enjoy about this racing is the close quarters. You can literally hear every breath of the runners around you. You can feel your competition right on top of you the whole way. It's just different than most road races. The one thing I do not enjoy is the bumping. Twice during the race someone's foot hit mine, or vice versa. Another time I banged elbows pretty hard in a corner. It's all inadvertent but it can be unnerving when you imagine you were probably closer than you would have liked to be to tripping.

Lap 4 is about the point where my lungs start to burn. Not like breathing has become uncomfortable burn but like breathing starts to feel like your lungs may literally be catching fire burn. Then on  the 6th lap I notice two of the runners in front of me starting to slow just a touch. Realizing I'm a bit stronger carries me through the lap and at the start of lap 7 I am confident even though I'm quite sure my left lung has exploded. No time like the present to go so I picked it up with 300m left and around the turn pass the two runners that were starting to fade.

Now it's the last lap, 200m to go, and this is where my good pacing paid off. Down the back stretch I move to the right and pass two more...feels like I'm flying now...strong and slightly closing on the leader...Into the final turn and I've got hi....wait, dude, what the fuck, where did you get that kick?. I just couldn't catch him on the home stretch and he beat me by a 1-1/2 seconds. Damn those young legs.

5:17

2 seconds slower than last year. If I keep that pace up I have a shot at sub-6 at age 70   I'm extremely happy as i have just started feeling better about my running after a really crappy couple of months last fall. Maybe next year I'll actually put in some mile-specific training to get ready for this thing.

*yes it was a mile as the start/finish lines are not the same

Awesome!  Sounds like a fun race.

Well done. Sounds like you rocked it!

When I was in college we had an indoor track. I always liked runnning on them. Beats a treadmill any day (in my book). I haven't seen one since college. Although I have been told there's one in the rec center a few towns over.

Nice to see someone else here who runs and likes the mile with its competition. I love that feeling and experience you describe of running in a pack, wondering how long you can hold pace, will you be able to out kick the pack...  I hope you have more opportunities to race this indoor season.

Awesome!!  That sounds like a really cool race; I wish we had something similar near me.

5:17????  Fuzzy, you are so flipping fast!  What a great race!  That bumping around stuff would've bugged me a bit too, but it sounds like you weren't too rattled.  Fantastic job!

Thanks everyone!

Nice to see someone else here who runs and likes the mile with its competition. I love that feeling and experience you describe of running in a pack, wondering how long you can hold pace, will you be able to out kick the pack...  I hope you have more opportunities to race this indoor season.

I think I would like to run more of these races. There is a local D3 college that has an open indoor meet coming up. Might have to check that out.

Wow! Congratulations, Speedy Fuzzy!