Dang, what a final day!
The races were great, especially the men's 1500. I watched the race right along the homestretch fence about 20 meters from the finish line. I won't spend too much time talking about running, just that I am happy for Lagat, Manzano, and Lomong. They are all very deserving!
When I had the time, I tried to get a bunch of pictures today. Some faces you might recognize are Bernard Lagat, Abdi, and Andrew Wheating. See the pictures.
I really need to start packing. We are leaving for the airport at 4 a.m. I loved Eugene and had a blast at the trials, but I am ready to get back home - Athens!
It was an awesome experience and I met so many cool people; I'm gonna make a list of everyone - crazy and not so crazy - when I'm sitting at the airport tomorrow and should have one culminating post sometime soon.
Side note: I just went to the Days Inn across the street and got a sign that is going to look great in the apartment next year! Don't worry Mom and Dad, I actually asked for it this time :)
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Is race-walking really an Olympic sport?
The Italian restaurant - Bepe and Giannia's Tratolina - we ate at last night was really good. Bob and Ali, it's on 19th street just south of the track...make sure you check it out. They had some really good, authentic Italian. The ice cream place across the street was excellent as well.
I wouldn't call the sleep I got last night a good night's rest; it was more like a nap. Kempe and I were hanging out at Villards. The place was packed last night. Kempe introduced me to this girl who runs for Georgia, Natalie Pittchella, who was really cool to hang out with. We didn't get back until about 2:30. I was up at 6:15 to tape, of all things, the women's 20k racewalk.
That is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. Race and walk. I'll give them some credit, but not too much. The few fans that were there were cheering: "Go walkers!" What kind of race has fans that yell for walkers? Exactly. Worst part about it, it was really cold this morning. Low 50s with a brisk North wind. Having not been prepared for that kind of cold, I was a popsicle by the end of the race.
After breakfast, some of us made the trip to the Skinner's Butte lookout, located just north of Eugene (see pictures). It was a nice, clear day and the view of the city was awesome.
The last day of the meet starts soon. I can't wait for the 1500. My prediction is 1) Lagat 2) Gabe Jennings 3) Lomong. Look out for Manzano and Ohioian Rob Myers. Although I would like to see Alan Webb make the team, I just don't think it's gonna happen.
Off to Hayward!
I wouldn't call the sleep I got last night a good night's rest; it was more like a nap. Kempe and I were hanging out at Villards. The place was packed last night. Kempe introduced me to this girl who runs for Georgia, Natalie Pittchella, who was really cool to hang out with. We didn't get back until about 2:30. I was up at 6:15 to tape, of all things, the women's 20k racewalk.
That is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. Race and walk. I'll give them some credit, but not too much. The few fans that were there were cheering: "Go walkers!" What kind of race has fans that yell for walkers? Exactly. Worst part about it, it was really cold this morning. Low 50s with a brisk North wind. Having not been prepared for that kind of cold, I was a popsicle by the end of the race.
After breakfast, some of us made the trip to the Skinner's Butte lookout, located just north of Eugene (see pictures). It was a nice, clear day and the view of the city was awesome.
The last day of the meet starts soon. I can't wait for the 1500. My prediction is 1) Lagat 2) Gabe Jennings 3) Lomong. Look out for Manzano and Ohioian Rob Myers. Although I would like to see Alan Webb make the team, I just don't think it's gonna happen.
Off to Hayward!
Is race-walking really an Olympic sport?
The Italian restaurant - Bepe and Giannia's Tratolina - we ate at last night was really good. Bob and Ali, it's on 19th street just south of the track...make sure you check it out. They had some really good, authentic Italian. The ice cream place across the street was excellent as well.
I wouldn't call the sleep I got last night a good night's rest; it was more like a nap. Kempe and I were hanging out at Villards. The place was packed last night. Kempe introduced me to this girl who runs for Georgia, Natalie Pittchella, who was really cool to hang out with. We didn't get back until about 2:30. I was up at 6:15 to tape, of all things, the women's 20k racewalk.
That is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. Race and walk. I'll give them some credit, but not too much. The few fans that were there were cheering: "Go walkers!" What kind of race has fans that yell for walkers? Exactly. Worst part about it, it was really cold this morning. Low 50s with a brisk North wind. Having not been prepared for that kind of cold, I was a popsicle by the end of the race.
After breakfast, some of us made the trip to the Skinner's Butte lookout, located just north of Eugene (see pictures). It was a nice, clear day and the view of the city was awesome.
The last day of the meet starts soon. I can't wait for the 1500. My prediction is 1) Lagat 2) Gabe Jennings 3) Lomong. Look out for Manzano and Ohioian Rob Myers. Although I would like to see Alan Webb make the team, I just don't think it's gonna happen.
Off to Hayward!
I wouldn't call the sleep I got last night a good night's rest; it was more like a nap. Kempe and I were hanging out at Villards. The place was packed last night. Kempe introduced me to this girl who runs for Georgia, Natalie Pittchella, who was really cool to hang out with. We didn't get back until about 2:30. I was up at 6:15 to tape, of all things, the women's 20k racewalk.
That is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one. Race and walk. I'll give them some credit, but not too much. The few fans that were there were cheering: "Go walkers!" What kind of race has fans that yell for walkers? Exactly. Worst part about it, it was really cold this morning. Low 50s with a brisk North wind. Having not been prepared for that kind of cold, I was a popsicle by the end of the race.
After breakfast, some of us made the trip to the Skinner's Butte lookout, located just north of Eugene (see pictures). It was a nice, clear day and the view of the city was awesome.
The last day of the meet starts soon. I can't wait for the 1500. My prediction is 1) Lagat 2) Gabe Jennings 3) Lomong. Look out for Manzano and Ohioian Rob Myers. Although I would like to see Alan Webb make the team, I just don't think it's gonna happen.
Off to Hayward!
Saturday, July 5, 2008
The Penultima Night
It was a pretty mellow day at the track, especially after what happened to Tyson Gay this morning.
The crowd livened up for the final of the men's steeple. It was so cool to watch a race with so many people that I have raced against/know. Corey Nowitzke, Brian Olinger, Dan Huling, Jordan Desilettes, and Josh McAdams all made the finals. Fam, the bearded wonder, won the race pretty convincingly and could be a possible contender for a medal in Beijing.
After a cloudy beginning to the day, it's nice and sunny right now. I got in a good 10-miler after the meet was over this afternoon. I went back up to Hendrick's park and ran on some trails up there before finishing up over on Pre's trail. There are so many cool places to run out here that 10 miles goes by pretty quick.
Tonight's title also serves as the word of the day. Penultima. If you don't know what it means, look it up. If you do know what it means, or once you have looked it up, make it your goal to use it before the end of the weekend! That's my challenge.
We are leaving to go eat a nice Italian dinner.
The crowd livened up for the final of the men's steeple. It was so cool to watch a race with so many people that I have raced against/know. Corey Nowitzke, Brian Olinger, Dan Huling, Jordan Desilettes, and Josh McAdams all made the finals. Fam, the bearded wonder, won the race pretty convincingly and could be a possible contender for a medal in Beijing.
After a cloudy beginning to the day, it's nice and sunny right now. I got in a good 10-miler after the meet was over this afternoon. I went back up to Hendrick's park and ran on some trails up there before finishing up over on Pre's trail. There are so many cool places to run out here that 10 miles goes by pretty quick.
Tonight's title also serves as the word of the day. Penultima. If you don't know what it means, look it up. If you do know what it means, or once you have looked it up, make it your goal to use it before the end of the weekend! That's my challenge.
We are leaving to go eat a nice Italian dinner.
Tyson Gay pulls up
I just got back from taping the quarterfinals of the 200 and the unthinkable just happened. Tyson Gay is out.
He was about 50 meters into his race when he took the dive. It was really weird how he fell, almost like he got his spikes caught in the track. Speculation in the pressbox was that he tore/pull his hamstring. They had to cart him off. The Olympics are a big question mark.
Not a good start to the morning.
He was about 50 meters into his race when he took the dive. It was really weird how he fell, almost like he got his spikes caught in the track. Speculation in the pressbox was that he tore/pull his hamstring. They had to cart him off. The Olympics are a big question mark.
Not a good start to the morning.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th of July!
I also hope you saw better fireworks than we did. As far as fireworks displays go, the ones we saw weren't very good. But I guess it's about the atmosphere and setting more than anything. How many times do you watch fireworks and celebrate the 4th in the stands of Hayward Field?
There were some pretty awesome races last night. The weather was perfect and the runner's took advantage of it!
Abdi impressed in the 10k. Leading most of the way, he gave the lead up to Oregon's Galen Rupp with 3 laps to go, before passing him back with 500 to go and holding off the crowd favorite down the stretch. Abdi then celebrated by running over to the steeple pit and jumping in the water! That was pretty funny. As for Galen, what a race. The 22-year old phenom is going to own the 10k in four years. Big props to Jorge Torres too, who ran the race of his life to get third.
In the women's 5k, Kara Goucher came from behind in the last 100 to win. Goucher, Jen Rhines and Shalane Flanigan pulled away from the rest of the field about mid-way through the race. The three pushed the paced and it looked like Goucher was hurting, but she kept it close enough to give herself the chance to win. She ran a 63-second last lap. Wow! Side note, I was underneath the grandstands watching the women warm-up before the race. Let's just say that it was a good view :)
High school junior Jordan Hasay, from California, ran a new high school record in the 1500 - 4:14. She also qualified for the finals on Sunday. As she was taking her picture with the scoreboard, the fans started chanting "Come to Oregon." Is that some sort of NCAA recruiting violation? Probably not, but what an advantage haha!
After the fireworks, we ended up going to the Villard Street Pub again. The place was packed last night. 3 of the 6 distance running qualifiers from last night showed up. Abdi and Galen on the men's side. And Jen Rhines, along with Sara Slattery, were the women. They were taking pictures with people left and right. I almost felt bad for them because they didn't get a chance to just relax. Then again, I don't feel too bad for them because there are going to the Olympics.
Good to see that Zambrano is back pitching again for the Cubs. Good win yesterday Big Z!
I also hope you saw better fireworks than we did. As far as fireworks displays go, the ones we saw weren't very good. But I guess it's about the atmosphere and setting more than anything. How many times do you watch fireworks and celebrate the 4th in the stands of Hayward Field?
There were some pretty awesome races last night. The weather was perfect and the runner's took advantage of it!
Abdi impressed in the 10k. Leading most of the way, he gave the lead up to Oregon's Galen Rupp with 3 laps to go, before passing him back with 500 to go and holding off the crowd favorite down the stretch. Abdi then celebrated by running over to the steeple pit and jumping in the water! That was pretty funny. As for Galen, what a race. The 22-year old phenom is going to own the 10k in four years. Big props to Jorge Torres too, who ran the race of his life to get third.
In the women's 5k, Kara Goucher came from behind in the last 100 to win. Goucher, Jen Rhines and Shalane Flanigan pulled away from the rest of the field about mid-way through the race. The three pushed the paced and it looked like Goucher was hurting, but she kept it close enough to give herself the chance to win. She ran a 63-second last lap. Wow! Side note, I was underneath the grandstands watching the women warm-up before the race. Let's just say that it was a good view :)
High school junior Jordan Hasay, from California, ran a new high school record in the 1500 - 4:14. She also qualified for the finals on Sunday. As she was taking her picture with the scoreboard, the fans started chanting "Come to Oregon." Is that some sort of NCAA recruiting violation? Probably not, but what an advantage haha!
After the fireworks, we ended up going to the Villard Street Pub again. The place was packed last night. 3 of the 6 distance running qualifiers from last night showed up. Abdi and Galen on the men's side. And Jen Rhines, along with Sara Slattery, were the women. They were taking pictures with people left and right. I almost felt bad for them because they didn't get a chance to just relax. Then again, I don't feel too bad for them because there are going to the Olympics.
Good to see that Zambrano is back pitching again for the Cubs. Good win yesterday Big Z!
Friday, July 4, 2008
Butte to Butte 4th of July 10k
Happy 4th of July everyone!
It was an entirely too early start this morning, especially after another late night Mexican run last night. As far as I'm aware of Burrito Boy treated everyone much better than Muchos Gracios did. The Burrito Boy passed the standardized test for most Mexican restaurants: Mexican music and the local Mexican people! Muchos Gracios had neither, which should have been the red flag.
I got up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to get things around and catch the bus to the start of the Butte to Butte 10k race. 7,000 people showed up this morning to compete in the country's largest 4th of July 10k race. Things went pretty well considering my training has been suspect the past 3 weeks or so. I ended up finishing 3rd overall, a couple seconds behind 2nd and quite a ways behind 1st. The winner was Brett Schoolmeister, who was a national caliber runner at Colorado a few years ago. The spoils of 3rd place are alright though: $200, a nice Butte to Butte pullover, a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the last item mentioned, other than they are already improving the smell of our room!
This race was kind of crazy in a way. It started off with a long climb up this huge hill for the first mile. I went through the mile in 5:31. The second mile was back down the other side of the hill and I went through the two-mile in 9:56 - so that was a brisk 4:25 second mile haha. The rest of the race was pretty flat and I felt pretty comfortable.
Afterwards I cooled down with the winner from Colorado. I also finally talked to Bridget Franek for a bit. She runs for Penn State and is originally from Ohio. I see her all the times at meets, but have never talked to her. Nice girl.
Funny story from last night's walk home from Burrito Boy. We see about 25 cops surrounding this house, which is actually a classroom building on campus, so we decide to park it across the street and take it all in. The cops suspect that the man inside has broke into the building. The four of us - Brad, Adam, Andrew and I - can see this man just chilling in this room; it looked like he was just watching tv or something. Then a few minutes go by and this lady who is a custodian came up behind us and identified the man as Dave Grace, a fellow custodian. The great thing is the cops have no clue that this guy is supposed to be in the building. He finally comes out of the building and the cops yell at him to show them his hands. The cops realize they goofed up big time and we could hear them apologizing to everyone with their walkie talkies. Talk about hilarious! Guess you had to be there :)
So excited for the distances races tonight! Men's 10k, Women's 5k and semi heats of the men's and women's 1500.
It was an entirely too early start this morning, especially after another late night Mexican run last night. As far as I'm aware of Burrito Boy treated everyone much better than Muchos Gracios did. The Burrito Boy passed the standardized test for most Mexican restaurants: Mexican music and the local Mexican people! Muchos Gracios had neither, which should have been the red flag.
I got up at 5:30 a.m. this morning to get things around and catch the bus to the start of the Butte to Butte 10k race. 7,000 people showed up this morning to compete in the country's largest 4th of July 10k race. Things went pretty well considering my training has been suspect the past 3 weeks or so. I ended up finishing 3rd overall, a couple seconds behind 2nd and quite a ways behind 1st. The winner was Brett Schoolmeister, who was a national caliber runner at Colorado a few years ago. The spoils of 3rd place are alright though: $200, a nice Butte to Butte pullover, a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the last item mentioned, other than they are already improving the smell of our room!
This race was kind of crazy in a way. It started off with a long climb up this huge hill for the first mile. I went through the mile in 5:31. The second mile was back down the other side of the hill and I went through the two-mile in 9:56 - so that was a brisk 4:25 second mile haha. The rest of the race was pretty flat and I felt pretty comfortable.
Afterwards I cooled down with the winner from Colorado. I also finally talked to Bridget Franek for a bit. She runs for Penn State and is originally from Ohio. I see her all the times at meets, but have never talked to her. Nice girl.
Funny story from last night's walk home from Burrito Boy. We see about 25 cops surrounding this house, which is actually a classroom building on campus, so we decide to park it across the street and take it all in. The cops suspect that the man inside has broke into the building. The four of us - Brad, Adam, Andrew and I - can see this man just chilling in this room; it looked like he was just watching tv or something. Then a few minutes go by and this lady who is a custodian came up behind us and identified the man as Dave Grace, a fellow custodian. The great thing is the cops have no clue that this guy is supposed to be in the building. He finally comes out of the building and the cops yell at him to show them his hands. The cops realize they goofed up big time and we could hear them apologizing to everyone with their walkie talkies. Talk about hilarious! Guess you had to be there :)
So excited for the distances races tonight! Men's 10k, Women's 5k and semi heats of the men's and women's 1500.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Meet resumes
The meet will be starting back up in about 2 hours. I'm excited for some of tonight's races because I personally know - some better than others - about six guys who will be running. Two of the guys are in the 1500 - Jeff See and Rob Meyers - and four are in the steeple chase - Corey Nowitzke, Jordan Desillets, Brian Olinger and Dan Huling. Both of the races are qualifying events.
We drove to some outlet shops about an hour north of Eugene this morning. I used some of my per diem money at the Nike and Ralph Lauren Polo stores; thank you USATF!
I took Andrew on a little run up to Pre's rock. We timed it perfectly because Nike was taking some of their employees up there to listen to one of Pre's old teammates, an 800 runner whose name was Steve, talk in general about Pre and then also his death. So we stood in the back and listened. It's hard to imagine someone could die on this road because it is all completely residential.
I just got back from the rec center, where I finally found something I could beat Lindsey at - basketball. I was able to win a few games of horse against her, but she's got a pretty good shot.
The meet starts back up in a few hours. Time for a quick shower and then it's off to Hayward for the night!
We drove to some outlet shops about an hour north of Eugene this morning. I used some of my per diem money at the Nike and Ralph Lauren Polo stores; thank you USATF!
I took Andrew on a little run up to Pre's rock. We timed it perfectly because Nike was taking some of their employees up there to listen to one of Pre's old teammates, an 800 runner whose name was Steve, talk in general about Pre and then also his death. So we stood in the back and listened. It's hard to imagine someone could die on this road because it is all completely residential.
I just got back from the rec center, where I finally found something I could beat Lindsey at - basketball. I was able to win a few games of horse against her, but she's got a pretty good shot.
The meet starts back up in a few hours. Time for a quick shower and then it's off to Hayward for the night!
White-Water rafting and another strange encounter
Today was rest day #2 - the meet starts back up tomorrow. For the third straight day, I made my way over to the Original Pancake House (see pictures) for some breakfast. I ordered myself the 2x4 - 2 eggs and 4 pancakes - and a waffle. The food was great, but the nap after breakfast was even better!
The group decided to go white-water rafting today. We missed the company's van shuttle, so we had to meet them out there by way of Eugene's public transportation bus. I've ridden on buses and subway cars in cities like Chicago and New York, and of course you see some odd turkeys, but I call say with absolutely certainty that the people who ride the buses in Eugene are in a whole different league!
Take for example our encounter with Terry. I've affectionately dubbed Terry the Pride of Oregon. He was undoubtedly strung out on something, but was still able to enlighten us about our upcoming rafting trip. Terry had trouble remembering anything we told him, possibly because he was drinking Vodka from a Aquafina bottle. He lives on the river, in a mansion according to him, and knows the river, as he put it, like "the back of my hand."
As for the rafting trip, it was my first time and it was fun! The water was crystal clear and the views of the green hills in Oregon were amazing. Nothing prepared me for the first time we got wet though; the water temperature was 49-degrees! Our group was split up onto two separate rafts, and naturally we had to have a water fight. Not a smart decision. I was pretty much a frozen ice cube by the end of the trip. No one from our boat fell in, unwillingly at least.
I met up with Kempe and his dad's friends at the house where they are staying. We had a little cookout and they let me mooch a couple of burgers off of them. So thanks Bob, Alvin, Delvin, and Jeff; I told you I could remember their names! One of the guys, Bob, ran at Bowling Green and had an original letter written to him from Steve Prefontaine. After Pre died, he and his friends made shirts to help raise money for his memorial fund and to show their appreciation, Pre's parents sent him 3 photos, all of which were taking of Steve the night of his final race and what would ultimately become his final night alive.
After dinner, we all headed back to the Villard Street Pub. Nick Symmonds, the 800 meter champion, came in and sat out on the patio right behind us with some friends, including Christian Smith, who finished 3rd in that race and will also be running in Beijing. I really wanted to get a picture with those two guys, but didn't feel like bothering them. A lot of coaches and athletes were in attendance tonight.
In closing, I want to tell everyone who has e-mailed me that I appreciate you keeping up with everything and that I will find time to respond back to each and every one of you!
Keep reading!
The group decided to go white-water rafting today. We missed the company's van shuttle, so we had to meet them out there by way of Eugene's public transportation bus. I've ridden on buses and subway cars in cities like Chicago and New York, and of course you see some odd turkeys, but I call say with absolutely certainty that the people who ride the buses in Eugene are in a whole different league!
Take for example our encounter with Terry. I've affectionately dubbed Terry the Pride of Oregon. He was undoubtedly strung out on something, but was still able to enlighten us about our upcoming rafting trip. Terry had trouble remembering anything we told him, possibly because he was drinking Vodka from a Aquafina bottle. He lives on the river, in a mansion according to him, and knows the river, as he put it, like "the back of my hand."
As for the rafting trip, it was my first time and it was fun! The water was crystal clear and the views of the green hills in Oregon were amazing. Nothing prepared me for the first time we got wet though; the water temperature was 49-degrees! Our group was split up onto two separate rafts, and naturally we had to have a water fight. Not a smart decision. I was pretty much a frozen ice cube by the end of the trip. No one from our boat fell in, unwillingly at least.
I met up with Kempe and his dad's friends at the house where they are staying. We had a little cookout and they let me mooch a couple of burgers off of them. So thanks Bob, Alvin, Delvin, and Jeff; I told you I could remember their names! One of the guys, Bob, ran at Bowling Green and had an original letter written to him from Steve Prefontaine. After Pre died, he and his friends made shirts to help raise money for his memorial fund and to show their appreciation, Pre's parents sent him 3 photos, all of which were taking of Steve the night of his final race and what would ultimately become his final night alive.
After dinner, we all headed back to the Villard Street Pub. Nick Symmonds, the 800 meter champion, came in and sat out on the patio right behind us with some friends, including Christian Smith, who finished 3rd in that race and will also be running in Beijing. I really wanted to get a picture with those two guys, but didn't feel like bothering them. A lot of coaches and athletes were in attendance tonight.
In closing, I want to tell everyone who has e-mailed me that I appreciate you keeping up with everything and that I will find time to respond back to each and every one of you!
Keep reading!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
A day of networking
Andrew, Aaron, and I went to the USATF coach's clinic yesterday. We got in free because the guys in charge of HPC - Dr. Mike Young, Dr. Will Wu, and Dr. Jared Porter - were giving presentations. I went to the distance running sessions and listened to: Terrence Mahon, coach of marathon medal hopefuls Ryan Hall and Deena Kastor; Jerry Schummacher, legendary distance coach at Wisconsin; Julie Heiner, women's coach at Georgetown; and Pat Tyson, the winner of 20 consecutive Washington state high school championships.
They all offered great insight into coaching distance runners. I got a chance to talk to Pat Tyson a little more. Tyson, who was roommates with Prefontaine when they were in school at Oregon, was the one who showed me around Kentucky's campus when I was considering transferring after all of the cuts. He left UK for a job with Nike out here in Oregon. He remembered me and we talked about how things worked out for both of us. He's a great guy!
I got in a quick workout when we got back. Did some 800s and some 20 sec. pickups mixed into a 12-mile run. I am gonna run this 10k road race on Friday.
After I got cleaned up, I met up with my good friend, Justin Kempe. He was the GA at OU while during my freshman and sophomore years. We went to track town pizza for a while and then we met up with some other coaches at the Villard Street Pub. He introduced me to the Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt coaches, but the highlight was talking with John Hayes, the coach of Lopez Lomong. Coach Hayes spilled the beans on everything Lopez - it sounds like he is in amazing shape, I'd look out for him in the 1500 - and gave Kempe and I the lowdown on coaching at the collegiate level.
Everyone cleared out around midnight, but Kempe and I stayed around until 1:30. We had a great talk!
I'm going for a little morning run over at Pre's Trail.
Everyone cleared
They all offered great insight into coaching distance runners. I got a chance to talk to Pat Tyson a little more. Tyson, who was roommates with Prefontaine when they were in school at Oregon, was the one who showed me around Kentucky's campus when I was considering transferring after all of the cuts. He left UK for a job with Nike out here in Oregon. He remembered me and we talked about how things worked out for both of us. He's a great guy!
I got in a quick workout when we got back. Did some 800s and some 20 sec. pickups mixed into a 12-mile run. I am gonna run this 10k road race on Friday.
After I got cleaned up, I met up with my good friend, Justin Kempe. He was the GA at OU while during my freshman and sophomore years. We went to track town pizza for a while and then we met up with some other coaches at the Villard Street Pub. He introduced me to the Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt coaches, but the highlight was talking with John Hayes, the coach of Lopez Lomong. Coach Hayes spilled the beans on everything Lopez - it sounds like he is in amazing shape, I'd look out for him in the 1500 - and gave Kempe and I the lowdown on coaching at the collegiate level.
Everyone cleared out around midnight, but Kempe and I stayed around until 1:30. We had a great talk!
I'm going for a little morning run over at Pre's Trail.
Everyone cleared
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Rest Day
The meet is on hold for the next two days. I'm leaving to go to a coach's clinic in 10 minutes. More details to come later.
Good to see the Cubs are back in the win column after getting swept by the White Sox this past weekend!
Good to see the Cubs are back in the win column after getting swept by the White Sox this past weekend!
Lagat wins 5k and Oregon crew sweeps the 800
It was an electric atmosphere at Hayward tonight. The lure of some great distance races brought in a record crowd of 20,949 and packed the live tv area just across the street. The weather was perfect tonight, as it finally cooled off a bit and the wind was non-existent.
The 800 was probably the most exciting race of the night, with Oregon Track Club athlete Nick Symmonds taking the win in an impressive time of 1:44.10. Finishing second was Oregon sophomore Andrew Wheating, who this time one year ago was running in the low 1:5o's for the 800, and third was another Oregon Track Club runner. I know I have been saying how loud the crowd has been in some of my previous posts, but trust me, this was the loudest I have heard it since the start of the meet. Both Symmonds and Wheating looked to be completely out of the race after the first lap, but feeding off the crowd, they made their moves coming off the final turn and really hammered home the last 50 meters.
Mixed in between the 800 was a few prelim heats of the women's steeple and 5k. Those were good races. No huge surprises. The finals will be very competitive.
The night was capped off with a thrilling battle in the 5k. There was a pack of 5 runners, for 3 Olympic team spots, with three laps to go. Solinsky, a former Wisconsin runner, took the lead and dropped the pace to a blistering 58-second quarter. The pack was unfazed and continued the torrid pace, until finally Bernard Lagat, Matt Tegankamp, and Ian Dobson separated down the final homestretch. They ran the last mile in 4:03!
I am closing tonight's post with an announcement: There will be a guest contributor in the coming days. The person's name shall remain anonymous for now, but I promise it will be worth your read.
The 800 was probably the most exciting race of the night, with Oregon Track Club athlete Nick Symmonds taking the win in an impressive time of 1:44.10. Finishing second was Oregon sophomore Andrew Wheating, who this time one year ago was running in the low 1:5o's for the 800, and third was another Oregon Track Club runner. I know I have been saying how loud the crowd has been in some of my previous posts, but trust me, this was the loudest I have heard it since the start of the meet. Both Symmonds and Wheating looked to be completely out of the race after the first lap, but feeding off the crowd, they made their moves coming off the final turn and really hammered home the last 50 meters.
Mixed in between the 800 was a few prelim heats of the women's steeple and 5k. Those were good races. No huge surprises. The finals will be very competitive.
The night was capped off with a thrilling battle in the 5k. There was a pack of 5 runners, for 3 Olympic team spots, with three laps to go. Solinsky, a former Wisconsin runner, took the lead and dropped the pace to a blistering 58-second quarter. The pack was unfazed and continued the torrid pace, until finally Bernard Lagat, Matt Tegankamp, and Ian Dobson separated down the final homestretch. They ran the last mile in 4:03!
I am closing tonight's post with an announcement: There will be a guest contributor in the coming days. The person's name shall remain anonymous for now, but I promise it will be worth your read.
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