June 15; Barriers

Date	Place of exercise	Duration (minutes)	123 steps(s)	400 meters quarter mile(s)	Start time
15 June	Orlyonok-Орлёнок	55	26.07	1:15.57	07:19

           Ridiculous. How can someone come within two seconds of the goal seven times in nine days, but NOT cross the barrier? What excuses can I find today? It began raining at the start of my run. There were several people on the track. I didn’t think about picking up my knees, and I thought about running on my toes only at the beginning. 

As I finished, I was running directly into a strong wind. All are valid excuses that could have made the difference between 1:15.57 and 1:15.00.

          The thing is that none of these excuses are as strong as the mind. My psychological outlook may be the difference between 1:15 and 1:16. The raindrops falling on my head may have influenced my speed negatively, not only with the bits of water on my body, or miniscule bits of slippage between my shoes and the track, but also because my mind is telling me that it is more difficult, or uncomfortable to run in the rain.

          Unless I misread my watch, as I passed the half-way point, I was at 36 seconds—on pace for 1:12 rather than 1:15. I did not let down at that point, but sped up. I tried to push it at the end, and I finished with quite a lot of energy.

          Running up the steps, I broke the 27-second barrier, and nearly the 26-second barrier.