McAlpine Miles

Time: 95:12
Distance: 14.44 miles
Pace: 6:35
Map

I met up with Sean and some of the athletes that were still in Charlotte for spring break. We started at Old Bell and made a few loops around the Footlocker Course. It was an enjoyable run and we spent most of the time recapping last night's track action. For those who don't know, I a big time fan of track & field and racing in general. I can sit in front of a screen watching the athletes perform which I don't think many people find interesting.

I love the pre-race routines, the nerves and jitters as the athletes line up for the race. I like comparing the form and strides of the runners while they change gears from a relaxed pace to a sprint. I look at arm carry, forward leans, side to side motion, knee lift and back kick. You can learn a lot from watching both efficient and inefficient runners compete their best. The best part of watching races is seeing the tactics being used against one another and trying to predict who and when the contenders are going to make their moves.

As I mentioned above, there was a lot of track action taking place yesterday. A couple of NCAA meets were being held in two very nice indoor venues. The DI meet took place in Fayetteville, Arkansas while the DII meet was in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Both meets were aired on the CBS Sports website and coverage was actually respectable. There were some great performances at the meets that I'll let Letsrun.com recap. Rojo/Wejo (site founders) pay little to no attention to DII nationals, but my readers should know that Tanya Zeferjahn, Meagan Nedlo and Nelso Mwangi of the Queens University of Charlotte all took home All-American honors.

The really big time athletes (ones who get paid to race from footwear manufacturers like Nike and Adidas) were competing at the World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar. Universal Sports aired the action live which was a treat. I didn't get to see Bernard Lagat run his 3k, but he dominated the field the final 400 meters. I can't find the full day 3 broadcast to watch Lagat's race. I found the 2 minute replay with the American announcers who are utterly terrible in their play by play. The full broadcast uses British announcers that are incredibly knowledgeable about the athletes, the races and what winning means to some countries.