PRs Continue

Joshua had his best meet of the year Saturday at the Little Elm Lobo Invitational by setting not one, but two personal records. In the 3200m, Josh had his best time ever with a 10:12. That is 11 seconds faster than his previous best time of 10:23. Despite his record time, it was only good enough for a fifth place finish. For a change, Josh had some very good competition. The winning time was a blistering 9:33 with second being a 10:00.

In the 1600m, Josh crossed the finish line with a 4:45, eight seconds faster than what was his personal best of 4:53. Once again, despite the great personal showing, his time was only good enough for sixth place. First place ran a 4:30 while the second place time was 4:36.

In both races the top two times were from Frisco Centennial which is a 4A school like Forney, so if Josh can make it to the regional meet, he will see them again. Going into the Little Elm meet, Josh was wanting to run a 10:00 3200m and a 4:40 1600m. He will have one more shot at the times before the district meet. This coming Friday, the Jackrabbits will run at Rockwall-Heath. The district meet is set for April 8th & 9th in Mesquite.

Josh sets PR in 1600m

Joshua set a personal record last Friday at the Cotton Ford Relays held at Greenville High School. Josh took third place in the 1600 but also ran his fastest time ever by breaking the five minute mark to finish with a 4:53. He also took second place in the 3200 with a time of 10:38. The winning time in the 1600 was 4:47 while a 10:28 took the top spot in the 3200.

Joshua enjoyed some friendly harassing from my boss before the 1600. From all accounts, Leo Sanders, my boss, was not bad as a long distance runner in his younger days at Carthage High School. He made it to Greenville in time to watch the 3200 and then stuck around to see the 1600. Between races, Leo started giving Josh a hard time about how slow he ran and kept calling him a "sissy" every time Josh asked for something to eat. "All you need is some water and a power bar you sissy."

As the time between races got longer and longer, Leo finally told Josh, "You run a 4:50 mile and your dad will buy you a big steak." Josh looked at me and I agreed. "So if I run a 4:50 you are going to take me to Salt Grass and buy me a big steak," Josh asked. Once again I said yes. Remember, up until last Friday, his fastest mile was 5:00. As it turned out, it must have motivated Josh. Even though he didn't hit the 4:50 mark, he got very close. When he crossed the line and got his time from the timekeeper, Josh made some comment about being upset about his time. The timekeeper told him that he had a very good time at which Josh replied, "Yea but I just missed getting a steak." A lot of his teammates also came running up to him to see what his time was because they all had heard about the steak bet.

The next meet is one that was just added to the schedule this coming Saturday at Lancaster. We are already committed to be at the Leadership Training for Christ (LTC) convention in downtown Dallas so Josh will not get to run in the 3200. There is a chance we will be able to get him to the meet in time to run the 1600, that is if the race is later in the afternoon like it is with most meets. Otherwise, the next meet will be March 29th at Little Elm.

Maybe by then, Josh will have to run a 4:40 to get a steak.

Josh wins 3200m

If I was ever this late getting a story to press back in my newspaper days, I would have been fired on the spot. But since I am the publisher/sports editor of this "electronic rag," I can be late. I really thought I would wait until after last week's meet in Heath, but after Thursday's meet was cancelled before it ever got started due the rain, sleet and snow that hit the area I had to go to plan "b".

Anyway, Joshua's last meet was March 1st at the Clay Jones Relays here in Forney. Josh had a very good meet taking first place in the 3200m and fourth in the 1600m. Despite finishing first, he was not pleased with his performance as he ran his slowest time of the year at 10:38. "I didn't have any competition," Josh said after the run. My come back to him was, "That is when you have to really push yourself."

I thought his 1600m time was really good when you take into account that by the time the 1600m was run around 5 p.m., the wind was blowing very strong out of the south. Josh's time was 5:02. The winning time was 4:48.

Forney entered two varsity teams in the 4 x 400m and Josh was selected to run the anchor on the second team. He was not looking forward to it before the race for a couple of reasons. First, the 4 x 400m was the race right after the 1600m. The second reason, Josh is not a sprinter and in today's track world, the 400m is a sprint. Nevertheless, Josh shocked himself by running the fastest quarter he has ever ran at 0:59. I told him all he had to do was run that time eight times in a row and he would take the state title in the 3200m. He was not impressed.

This week they have two meets on the schedule. Friday they are scheduled to run at Greenville. The 3200m will start the running events at 3:00 and as with most meets, the 1600m is the next to last event of the meet which means he will probably be running around 6:00. Saturday, the team is scheduled to run at the Jesuit-Sheaner Relays in Dallas, but according to Josh today, he does not know if they are going or not. Apparently this meet is one of the premiere meets in the state with teams coming from all over the U.S. I saw a list of teams that have signed up and there really are two high schools from New York and two from Oklahoma.

Josh was told last week that Forney was not going to have anybody run the mile because they could not compete, but they would enter the 3200m. The winning time at last year's Jesuit meet in the 1600m was 4:21. Josh's fastest time in the 1600m this year is 5:00 which would have got him 19th place. The 3200m time is more in line with what Josh has the potential of getting. Last year's winning time was 9:35 which by the way was a kid from Forney who is on track scholarship this year at Sam Houston State. Josh's fastest 3200m this year of 10:23 would have got him 11th place last year.

It looks like the weather is going be nice this weekend so we are looking for some fast times.

Until next time...