Journals : Marques Johnson of North Dakota State University
First off, congrats to everyone who competed at the Ncaa meets this weekend. Clement and Spearmon are on another planet right now because the times are just sick. Hopefully, Espn will at least show the damn races when they do there coverage. It was weird not competing this weekend and hearing about all the fun everyone was having. This is part of the season that I knew I would hate. I almost feel robbed by the Ncaa of my opportunity to compete. For you that don't know the story, we moved up from D2 to D1 this year and we have to sit out for the probation period and are school was so excited about moving up that we forgot to get a conference. Oops!! Yeah, So no conference meet or Nationals in my senior year, but we do have the D-1 Independent championships outdoor, Which will probably only have 10 teams in it. It's a good thing that I love the sport or I probably wouldn't even run.
Anyway, the last time competed was two weeks ago at the Norte Dame Last Chance meet in South Bend. I competed in the 400 and 4x4 relay. This was my season debut in the 400 and it is one that I'll remember. Before the race all I thought about was "break point, break point Break point." I got out really hard and tired to do just that, but when we got to the break point there were two guys on my inside and I didn't want to get into a big collision so i let them take the lead. Earlier in the day I spotted a man on top of the building wearing all black with a mask on. He look kinda like a sniper but I wasn't sure. As soon as I crossed the break point line we made eye contact and boom he shot me!!! I tell you that was the hardest 2nd half of any 400 that I've ever run in my life. I caught the piano, monkey, elephant and everything else. It wasn't funny but it was because I've never broke down like that in a race. I managed to drag myself across the line in48.34 but nowhere near what I was aiming for. After the race coach came over and said," Not a bad race, but Not a great race, and I wanted to laugh so bad but I couldn't, sh*t I couldn't even see him I was so out of it. He told me that I went out in 21.9 the 1st 200 which is probably why i died the way I did but it was something that I'll always remember.
It was a true test of my manhood because I still had to run the 4x4 relay. At first I didn't think that I would make it but I had to suck it up for myself and my teammates. After all, this was my last indoor collegiate race and I couldn't go out with the 400 performance. We ended up finishing 3rd and broke the school record are school record of 3:11.60 with a 3:10.24 clocking and I anchored in 47.06. I felt like a new man running on the relay. I came of the last turn and felt like it was the opening 50. Next up we head to the U of Miami for the Hurricane Invite on Saturday. We get down there on Wednesday so we can get some training in the heat, which is something that we won't see up here until late April. Last year at this meet i doubled in the 200/400 and ran 21.46 and won the 400 in 47.39. Hopefully, I will improve on those season openers. I looking around 21.2 and 46.8.
