The Mt Sac relays is basically an open athletics meeting. However it attracts some of the best athletes from across America aswell as many elite foreign athletes. Despite my withdrawal from the competition we decided to attend for the first two days to watch.
One of the main differences between this race and anything we get in the UK is the depth of the races. This means that rather than having a 5000m and a 10,000m for men and women, we sat through a total of six 10,000m races and eight 5000m races, each with around 30+ athletes in. It might sound comparable to watching some paint dry but for true athletics geeks like us it was great and we loved every minute. There were some great personal bests by some of the British athletes as well to boot.
After two days and 15 hours of athletics action (including an 11 hour stint on Friday) we felt pretty exhausted. The Mt Sac relays do in fact go on for another day on the Saturday, however we are heading to altitude in Arizona for a stint of training. In less than two weeks we return to the UK and events like Mt Sac relays and the Stanford Invitational will seem like miles away. We wish all athletics meets could be as enthusiastic and entertaining as this one...
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