JC Smith Invitational and Blue Shoes Mile

2 mile w/u+ strides
3k race (minus two laps) in ? (I forget)
2 mile c/d
Total: 6 miles


View of downtown Charlotte from the JC Smith track

To echo Jordan's blog intro, what a day of racing! It started with a few hours at the Johnson C. Smith Invitational meet across town. You may recognize the name, as JC Smith is the track where we work out every week. So essentially this was our home meet. As if that didn't make it feel relaxed enough, add the fact that there were, oh, about four schools competing and that none of us were really racing our events. Basically we were just there to put in a few morning miles before starting off the weekend.


Jess, Tanya and Holly post-"race"

In Jordan's case, however, the meet was a chance to get in a solid long workout effort while dusting some college kids on the track. He planned to run the 3k at 9am, get in a few minutes uptempo afterward, then double back in the 5k at 9:45. Basically three mini-tempo efforts. See his blog for all the pertinent details, but suffice it to say he schooled all the competition while barely breaking a sweat. I, on the other hand, dropped out of the 3k a few laps short after feeling a bit of warning pain from my foot. But enough about me.


Jordan cruises to victory in the 3k

After a late morning/early afternoon brunch in the dining hall (no doubt Jordan's favorite part of the day), he and Tanya and I took the fastest showers on record and threw on some casual clothes to take a road trip down to Furman University in Greenville, SC, for the Blue Shoes Mile. Mike and Blake were both slated to toe the line, and we wanted to support our friends while hopefully watching a fast, exciting race.


Tanya stakes out her spot before the Blue Shoes Mile

Despite excessively windy conditions, we were not disappointed. Mexican 1500m record holder Pablo Solares took the race out hard and never looked back, clocking a 3:59 for the "W." Although Blake had a less than stellar day and dropped out at 500 meters, Mike ran tough and strong for a third place finish and huge mile PR. Had the conditions been better, I wouldn't have been surprised to see both him and our friend Dave Nightingale dip under the elusive 4-minute barrier.


Dave Nightingale and Mike racing the final turn

Event 25 Men 1600 Meter Run Blue Shoes College
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Name Year School Finals
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1 Pablo Solares Unattached 3:59.27
2 David Nightingale Unattached 4:04.11
3 Michael Crouch Unattached 4:04.71
4 John Richardson Unattached 4:06.93
5 Nate Peck Unattached 4:09.55
6 Thomas Morgan Unattached 4:10.99
7 Patrick Morgan Unattached 4:12.77
8 Steve Magness Unattached 4:14.28
9 Moise Joeseph Unattached 4:14.69
10 Matt Elliott Unattached 4:16.98
11 Brad Orr Unattached 4:21.03
12 Josh Houser Unattached 4:21.60
-- Nick Polk Unattached DNF
-- Blake Bolden Unattached DNF