Jonny ran at Jessie Owens Stadium at Ohio State University in the Jessie Owens Track Classic. There was a wide variety of schools there and this being Jonny’s third week of full training we were hoping to see some improvement from last weeks performance. My parents made the trip down to Columbus to watch him run. Unfortunately they were unable to talk to Jonny before or after the race as they had to leave after he was done running because they were parked in a stripped zone next to the handicap parking which was occupied by a coach bus.
Jonny got off to his normal start and settled into the back of the pack from the far outside lane. At the 200 meter mark he worked up to 8th from 9th place. At 400 meters he moved up to 7th place as he was at the back of the lead pack. Everyone else started their kick around 400 to 500 meters, but held off until about 600 meters before starting his kick. Last week at Tennessee he started his kick around the 500 meter mark and ran out of gas about 100 meters later due to his lack of conditioning from his required rest recovering from his previous leg injury. The rest of the pack moved away from him, but as he started his kick at 600 meters he started gaining on other racers and finally took over 6th place with about 30 meters. His time was 1:57.26 and overall he finished 27th out of 33 racers.
After the race he commented that he felt a lot better in the last couple hundred meters. He wasn’t confident after last week that he was going to be able to finish hard the last 300 meters, but when he started his kick later than the rest of the group his conditioning was starting to show improvement and he was able to finish strong and competitive. His times should get better over the next couple of weeks leading up to the Mac Championship in Buffalo, NY if he can improve his times and earn a spot.