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January 29, 2005
An inspiring meet
I've been to big track meets before, but the Boston Indoor Games were definitely more exciting than anything else I've seen in a while. We got fairly decent seats after getting there a little later than planned and even got a decent parking spot. I'm kind of star-struck when I see all these people that are "famous" to me for their running achievements, and Matt thinks it's funny. When we were waiting for the meet to start, I saw Julia Stamps sitting in the section next to us, Lauren Fleshman warming up and the boys' high school mile field jogging around. So that was almost enough excitement for the whole night for me! :)
But the real highlight was the women's 5K, where Tirunesh Dibaba from Ethiopia set a new world record (and earned $25,000 in the process.) What was amazing to me is how smoothly she was able to run at such a fast pace...and she progressively got quicker, running the last kilometer in 2:47 or something (according to the announcer.) The crowd got really into it, which was so neat for a track meet. They should have more of these large-scale events to show people how exciting track can be! There was also a large contingent of Ethiopian fans, which I thought was very cool--these athletes are obviously a source of national pride.
As for me, I ran to the gym today, lifted and then ran back home. It felt balmy in the sunny, 30 degree temps! I felt better than yesterday today but still on the sluggish side. I'm hoping to do 18-20 tomorrow and I'm really nervous about getting through it without bonking. But it's not hard to be conservative when you know you'll be ending with the heartbreak hills. We'll see what happens.
Posted by becky at January 29, 2005 9:45 PM