Half Mile???

Alison has done a few different events in track this year, and she has done them without complaining, whatever her coach asked her to try.  This meet however had me at a loss.  At tonight's meet, Alison was scheduled to run the 800 meters... the metric half mile (which was actually the event I ran in jr. high).  The problem?  She has never, EVER, run a half mile in her life.  Not in practice, not in t areal meet.  Then, she was also scheduled to do the 200 meters, which coincidentally is run right after the 800.  So she would be running the 800 meters, then get about a 5 minute break, and have to do a 200 meters.  That, is insane!

But, being the trooper that she is, she agreed to run the 800.  She knew she wouldn't be competing for the win, so she took her sweet time doing it.  I forget what her "official" time was, but I want to say it was somewhere in the 3:15 range.  Then she ended up skipping the 200 altogether.  She actually thought that her coach had withdrawn her from the 200 because she had just finished running the 800.  Wrong.  She got a scratch in th e200, which is fine.  I don't think she would have placed in that event anyway.  But at least she gave the 800 a try.  It's too bad, because I always thought that Alison could have been a pretty good middle distance runner.  With her long legs she would have a very good stride if she would have just been able to build up a little stamina.