Sticking To The Plan Pays Off With A Good Win At The Camel City Invitational

By Derek Holdsworth for DyeStat

Photos by Phil Ponder

After spending some time with my long lost sister in Gainesville after my last race, I was on my way to North Carolina for the Camel City Invitational.

I picked up a pretty rough cough and felt like my lungs were toast from the indoor facility in Gainesville. I believe this was due to the construction dust that was at the brand new facility. This was one of the many challenges I had the opportunity to navigate this past week.  

As a college or high school athlete, you never quite realize what you have until it’s gone. You pretty much have someone telling you where to be and when to leave. As a pro, unless you’re traveling with others or in a group, you have to figure these things out on your own. This part of travel can be exciting because it can be really chaotic, but if you can navigate the obstacles, well, odds are you’ll race well too.

I realized I’d have to run to the local track about 3.5 miles from my hotel to do workouts and then just Uber back. It was pretty simple once I figured out where I needed to go.

Pre-meet helped me learn the track again. I hadn’t run at JDL Fast Track since 2014 and it was not glamorous memory (1:54 800 meters, in which I went out in 26 seconds for the first 200). My preparation was much different than the previous meet in Florida. I had some solid accelerations, featuring a jump rope, some 150s and an aggressive set of 300-200-100.

The times weren’t very fast on any of the reps. Running on a flat 200 is tough, especially if you aren’t used to  them. Fortunately for me, my entire high school career was run on 200-meter flats in the winter time, so I was excited to get after it. 

Much like in Florida, I hung around the Under Armour Baltimore 800 crew over the weekend. The team has always made me feel like I’m at home, which makes it easier to stress less and be cooped up in a room all day. Athletes have a tendency to just stay in their hotel room and “save energy."  I always want to walk around and have experiences. Who wants to think about running all day?

At dinner we had good food and even better laughs. If you ever need a laugh hang around Charles Jones and Vincent Crisp. They will have you laughing pretty hard.

The day of the race finally came: a shakeout to start my morning followed by a late breakfast and coffee to get me amped to race. I typically want to be at a meet about two hours before it starts. I get drained pretty quick at track meets, so I try not to be there long.

JDL is a pretty cool facility and it reminds me of where my team used to run the state meet in Virginia (Liberty University). After seeing some family and friends, it was time to get the warm up underway. 

I have been using the same warm-up routine for the past two years. It generally takes an hour, but it goes by very fast. After the warm-up is complete I hit some more accelerations and prepare to get out fast.

After doing our intros (Vince won best intro of the meet; I need to learn to not be so awkward) we headed to the start line. CJ (Charles Jones 1:46 800m runner) was the pacer for our race and I expected a hot pace from the gun. Hot ended up being an understatement as I got out in 25 and was already half a second back.

Seeing Vince's lead grow and grow I felt like I just needed to stay on the gas and be confident. Once we came through 600, I knew I had to start pressing. With 150 to go I pushed as hard as I could so I would have momentum to finish the last 50 meters. I still hadn’t caught Vince, and Edose Ibadin was quickly gaining on me. When I hit the home stretch, I dug deep and tried to hold form.

I ended up being first to the finish line!

POST-RACE INTERVIEW

I was surprised by the way I ran but I knew it wasn’t far off my original game plan. The time wasn’t super fast,  but at a meet with this much money on the line, winning is the only thing that matters. After the celebrations I got my gear back on and ran outside to do some hill sprints, per Coach (Mike) Johnson's orders.

The workout was a killer, especially after a race, but I completed it! Always a good feeling.

I went back to the hotel to greet family then hit the road to celebrate my birthday (Feb. 12) in Virginia. 

My name is Derek Holdsworth and I am a professional 800-meter runner for Bell Lap Track and Field. I’m orginially from Virginia but since finishing my education at Western Oregon, I now work full time at Super Jock n’ Jill to pay bills while training under my college coach.