Day Five

Day 5 (rest day 07-01-08)
My how time flies! I can’t believe we are in July already. But when you are having the time of your life, I guess you just have to expect time to fly. Rest days up here are kind of misnomers because you are still busy. It’s just that you are busy outside of the stadium instead of in it. After breakfast, Joe, Mel, Len, Ed, and yours truly took a hike up the road from here to where Steve Prefontaine, Eugene’s legendary running icon, met his maker. In a tragic alcohol related accident, Pre was returning home from a post race party when the small sports car he was driving careened into a large bolder alongside the road and America’s greatest distance run was dead at the age of 26. This bolder is now know as “Pre’s Rock” and is kind of a shine in his honor where visitors leave notes, medals, tee-shirts, flowers, running shoes, and other running related items. My afternoon was spent ride along bike trails along the Willamette River Bikeway System. It was just another day in Paradise. A little more food for thought: The other day at the meet, I saw a tee-shirt with the following written on the back, “Track and Field, the only true sport, everything else is just a game.” Agree or disagree?

Day Four

Day 4 (06/30/08)
Some people don’t do mornings but I guess I’m a morning person because I think the morning is the best part of the day. So, not to miss a morning up here, I was up before 6, put on my running attire and headed out the door (actually 3 doors before I could get to my bike). It’s only a short ride over to the Prefontaine Trail where I love to run. There are over 6 miles of trails all covered with bark chips. This makes for a very soft surface to run on which is perfect for my feet. Pre found trails like this running through out European cities where he competed and when he came back to Eugene he sold the city fathers on building just such a trail through Alton Baker Park. Here you can run through forests, open fields, next to rivers ,creeks, ponds, bridges and past Autzen Stadium where Oregon plays their football games. This morning’s run was an extra special bless from the Lord because this time last year I truly believed I would never run again until I got to Heaven. For me it doesn’t get any better than jogging along this trail for 30 minutes listing to songs like WE HAVE ALL THE TIME IN THE WORLD, SPEAK SOFTLY LOVE, O FORTUNA, SCHOOL DAYS, JOHNNY B. GOOD, WHISPERING BELLS, TOWN WITHOUT PITY, MOMENT TO MOMENT, and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE on my iPod (the 8th wonder of the world). The only thing that would have made it better is if Kelsey and Oreo were here to run along side me. Latter that morning I rode my bike back to the Allann Coffee Co. where I was able to post another blog. After dinner we all headed back to the track for the 7:10 start of the women’s 400 IH semifinals. The weather today has been much cooler. Some of the smoke from the Northern California wild fires has now reached up here and the skies are not as bright and sunny as they have been. This cooler weather made for great distance running and whereas distance races normally sends most track spectators out for a bathroom break or to grab a hotdog, here it keeps everyone in their seats because that is what they like best. The 800 is actually a middle distance and filled with drama. The women’s final was run out of 2 alleys tonight because of the big 12 runner field so they had to go out fast in order not to get tangled up when they broke for the poll. The drama in this final was to see if Oregon Track Club member Nicole Tetter (who was advanced into the final by the meet referee after her tumble in the semis) could make the Olympic team. This 34 year old knew she wasn’t the favorite and that she is nearing the end of her career and she knew that she wanted one more last hoora. Hanging in the middle of the pack for much of the race, Nicole finally moved into 3rd position at about the 600 meter mark and held on coming out of the final bend. For a short time it looked like she had an Olympic berth within her grasp but behind her, Kameisha Bennett was charging down the backstretch after her. Bennett’s heroic efforts put her ahead of Nicole, 2:01.20 to 2:01.30. For most fans in the stands, they had a little heartbreak as Nicole was a local favorite but that little heartbreak soon turned to joy when it was announced the Tetter was on the team despite her 4th place finish. What most people didn’t know was the Tetter had run an A standard time of 1:59.91 back in May of 2007 (the A standard is the time an athlete must accomplish if the country they represent is sending more than one athlete in an event). The second chances Nicole got by being advanced into the final and by leaping over the 3rd place finisher means a second trip to the Olympic for her. “From falling, not thinking that I was even in the finals, to getting 4th and making the team by default,” she said “I can’t wait to get to China.” Mark down June 30, 8:25 PM on your calendar as the time Hayward Field experienced one of its most crowd pleasing moments ever. The men’s 800 final was a classic. Three Eugene based runners were part of the 8 man field for this race. Nick Symmonds, Andrew Wheating, and Christian Smith. Symmonds was a true contender for a place on the Olympic team coming into the meet with a string of victories over top flight competition. But Wheating was a question mark. After all, this Oregon sophomore was only 7th in the Pac 10 conference as a freshman. After a meteoric rise this year, he became the NCAA runner-up but this is not the NCAA. This field included people like 4 time U.S. Champion Khadevis Robinson. Then there was Smith who most people had written off as extremely lucky to make the final and was one of the last 800 entrants allowed into the Trials with only a provisional qualifying time. Symmonds let Robinson take out the race and that’s just what Robinson did, pushing the pace hard and passing the 400 in 50.33. Probably less then 1% of the world population can run one lap that fast and here these guys still have another lap to go. “It was the fastest opening lap I’ve ever run,” Symmonds is quoted as say. As the second lap progressed Symmonds and Wheatly started moving up, Symmonds on the inside and Wheatly along the outside. With half a lap to go, Symmonds was boxed in by a wall of runners and looked to be in serious trouble. But he had learned a lesson from previous races that is hard to learn. It’s called “patience”. That patience he exercised paid off when one of the runners ahead of him moved one step to the right. That one small crack in the wall was the opportunity he was looking for and Symmons shot through the gap and launched his trade mark kick that took him to victory in a commanding style with a personal best time of 1:44.10. At the same time Symmons was shooting through from the inside, Wheating was running wide of the pack and as the crowed came to their feet and roared with a vengeance, Wheating began to pick off the runners that stood between him an a trip to Beijing. There is no doubt it, there was pandemonium in the stands when Wheating placed second with a personal best time of 1:45.03. “Oh my gosh, the crowd was so loud, I couldn’t hear myself breathing,” Wheating said. Behind Symmonds and Wheatly, Robinson, the prerace favorite , was hanging on for dear life. Christian Smith, the 3rd string Oregon runner, and Lopez Lomong were coming on strong. Smith snuck up behind Robinson and with a desperate lunge at the finish line completed Eugene’s sweep of the 800 Olympic team members. “I saw Khadevis and I knew he was the guy I had to get,” Smith said. “I just took a lean and dove. I didn’t think a lean alone would be enough. I wasn’t sure if I was diving for third or fourth. I couldn’t believe it when I got up off the track and saw that I was third. It was an unbelievable feeling.” Many feel it was the loudest crowd to ever to witness a track meet. Wheatly was quick to credit the crowd with his and Smith’s success. “I believe Oregon was 1-2-3 because of this crowd.
Do you remember my plan as laid out for this race in blog Day 2? Well, can you believe it? I forgot to bring my ear plugs. My ears are still ringing!

Day Three

Day Three (06/29/08)
As far as this blog is concerned, Day 3 was a real bummer. Having talked to some people at the University Book Store, I learned that about 5 blocks from my dorm room was a Carl’s Jr. Free WiFi there they told me. So off I go to a place I’m really not very fond of but I thought here is my chance to easily post to my blog everyday. I should have remembered a lesson I learned a long time ago – anything worthwhile is never easy or cheap. I was real excited when I turned on my laptop and saw the little signal in the menu bar up at the top indicating I was receiving an Internet connection. That excitement didn’t last long because when I opened my browser, I got that dreaded message – server cannot be found. And sure enough, no matter where I looked or how long I looked the server could not be found. Since looking for a server was no fun I decided to do something else that was fun. I went back to the dorms, washed up, and went over to the cafeteria for lunch. Shortly after lunch it was finally time to head off to the track in order to be ready for the men’s 100 semifinals. Sunday’s schedule included three running finals. Tiffany Ross-Williams won the 400H in 54.03. Lashinda Demus, who ran for Long Beach Poly, I believe, just missed the team as she finished in 4th place. Bernard Jackson won the men’s 400H in 48.17. My favorite field event is the pole vault and we had great seats for viewing that contest. Experience paid off in this event as 35 year old Derek Miles cleared 19 feet 1/4 inch to finish on top while 40 year old Jeff Hartwig (some people are grandpas by that age), competing in his 5th Olympic Trials, soared over 18 feet 8.25 inches to take second place. One nice thing the meet organizers did was to schedule the best for last on this 3rd day of track and field. (Personally I think that revenue from TV contracts might have had something to do with their scheduling decisions, but what do I know?) Why was the 100 meters the best? Simply because it produced the fastest time ever run in the world for 100 meters under any conditions. And who won? The guy that was lucky to get out of the first round where he finished 4th, Tyson Gay. Since his margin of victory over the rest of the field was clear, the only thing we needed after his race was the time. When his 9.68 popped up about 3 seconds after the race (thanks to the modern miracle of electronic timing) there wasn’t anyone left sitting in their seats as the fans yelled, screamed, and clapped their little paws silly realizing that they had just witnessed something that had never happened before in the history of sports. Don’t look for Gay’s record run to be found in the record books however, because, as the headlines in the local paper up here put it, his new record was Gone With the Wind (remember that book/movie?) For record purposes the wind at a sprinter’s back cannot exceed 2.0 meters per second and for Gay, the wind chasing him down the center of the track was 4.4 meters per second. Sunday’s meet was over about 5pm so we were able to eat our dinner at the cafeteria as opposed to getting a sandwich at Hammys. With so much daylight left, (doesn’t get dark here till after 9pm) I decided to head back to Allann’s Coffee Co. where I had been able to post my first blog from Eugene. After my 3 mile ride, I get into the coffee shop, turn on my computer, and wait expectantly for internet connection. It never happened, no matter what I did to get on-line. Finally I asked one of the gals working there if the had a password or something I needed to access the internet and she apologetically said that their WiFi had been out all day and they hadn’t been able to get it working. So I ended the day as I started it, not being able to get on-line. One good thing happened though. Instead of having to ride back to the dorms on the city street bike paths, I discovered a bicycle/walking path that runs through the forest and along the Willamette River and dumps me off right near the University. What a great, fun ride that is.

Day One (out of sequence)

Yesterday I accidently posted Day 2 instead of day 1. I thought about skipping Day 1 altogether but my inbox has been has been flooded with thousands of e-mails requesting a posting of Day 1 so here it is for the one or two people who will read it.

(06/27/08)
Day one of the trials got off to a great start. I woke up about 6 o’clock and decided to go out for a short jog. My jogs are definitely short and slow these days because of my neuropathy but I enjoy them so much that it is worth the discomfort they bring to my feet. The first thing you notice when you hit the ground running is that you are not alone. Everywhere you look there are people out running and jogging. The guy next to you could be Joe Jogger who plods along like I do, or it could be an elite runner who is entered in the Olympic Trials. It is not too difficult to tell the two apart. After my attempt at jogging I joined my friends at the all you can eat breakfast buffet where I quickly undid any health benefits that I might have achieved through my morning jog. After breakfast I had some time to kill (I hate that phrase because the older I get the more cognoscente I am of how little time I really have left and God keeps reminding me that I am suppose to be redeeming the time I have left and not killing it) so I did a little reading, rested my eyes (do I need to translate that expression for you?) ate some lunch, and then decided to make a dry run up to the track to check out our seats and to watch the high hurdle heats of the heptathlon which started at 1PM. The other guys didn’t want to get to the track until 5:30 because that’s when the real interesting events started. The first thing I learned was that security at these trials is really stringent. In order to get to the track you have to go through a security check similar to that of an airport. Once you get through that you need to walk through the street fair that stretches around two sides of the track. I enter the track from the east side where the ticket taker examines you ticket and runs an electronic scanner over the bar code on your ticket to make sure it is not bogus. You can’t take food or water into the stadium but you can take an empty water bottle in and fill it up at one of the drinking fountains. So, that’s the first thing I did. Then I headed up the stairs of Sec. P to row 25. What an amazing view of the whole track. We look down on the backstretch almost right across from the finish line. With a good pair of binoculars you can see just about every event. The toughest to follow from our seats are the long jump and triple jump. I no sooner settled down in my seat than the high hurdles began. Normally the heptathlon high hurdles are not very special but the few fans in the seats for this event were treated to something special when, in Heat 2, Hyleas Fountain ran 12.65 to set a new American Record previously held by Jackie Joyneer-Kersee. Her time was also the second fastest time ever run in the world. So, by making the extra effort to come early I was treated to a bit of history. After the hurdles I headed out with most of the fans that came to see the hurdles. (only the most die hard of die-hard fans stuck around for the field events of the heptathlon) After spending some time wondering through the street fair, I went to University Village. I found a bike shop where I was able to rent a bike for $60 a week. (my first bike didn’t cost that much and I owned it but these bikes are not you grandparent’s bikes—they are high tec and ride like a dream) Eugene is the most bike friendly city I know of. There are almost as many bike paths as there are streets for cars and you can get all over the city on a bike. Biking is such a big part of transportation up here that the meet organizers have a special bicycle lot where they have free valet parking for people who ride their bikes to the meet. Back at the track in the late afternoon it was fun to see the meet kick off with a special introduction of the 1980 Olympic Team Members. (if you recall, that was the team that never got to go over to the Games in Moscow because our county (Jimmy Carter) decided to boycott the Games because of Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan. (kind of ironic because look where we are now). It was neat watching two of my favorite athletes, Mary Slaney and Steve Scott take their honor walk around the track. Then the real fun began. We watched Adam Nelson step in the ring and with one throw hit the automatic qualifying mark in the shot put. In the women’s 100, Marshevet Hooker looked good leading all qualifiers for tomorrows semi-finals with a time of 10.76w. And, really surprising and exciting was to see Jeshua Anderson become the fastest qualifier in the 400 H with a time of 49.05. Anderson comes out of Taft High School and is only a freshman at Washington State. All you City track athletes and fans know all about Jeshua and I’m sure are rooting as hard as I am for him to make the Olympic Team but remember he is only a freshman and the whole cast of established stars in this event are still around and will follow him in to tomorrows semi-final. Maybe you think that perfect 10s only happen in gymnastics but the 10K final here tonight was a Perfect 10. Flanagan proved that our food for thought was a mute point as she broke Mary Slaney’s Hayward Field record with her time of 31:34.81. She pulled two other exzooberant runners onto the Olympic team along with her, Kara Goucher and Yoder Begley. Begley was especially overcome with joy as her 3rd place time of 31:43.60 also gave her her first A qualifying standard for the Olympic Games. Day One was really One Day to remember. Can’t wait to see what Day Two holds in store. (06-27-08)

A great link to info and pictures of the Olympic Trials can be found here:

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/OT/Home/index.csp

day 2

After 3 failed attempts to get online yesterday, today (Monday) I finally made it. So here is:
(06-28-08) Day Two of Track and Field.
Hayward Field has a really great history. And, that that history was made even richer today when Tyson Gay broke the American Record in the 100 meter dash. After misjudging his lead on the rest of the field, Gay turned off the jets and thought he could easy up the last 20 meters or so and still win his prelimanary heat. In a race where hundreds of a second can make the difference between winning and not advancing to the next round, Gay’s strategy proved to be risky business (did you ever see that movie?). Behind Gay were some of the fastest creatures on two legs and sensing a great opportunity, three of these sprinters took advantage of Gay’s mistake and went past him at the tape relegating Tyson to 4th place and the last automatic qualifying spot for the next round. This close call is what probably motivated him to run like the wind and clock his 9.77 AR in the quarterfinals. With 7 guys at 9.9 or faster day, I can’t wait to see what happens in tomorrow’s semifinal and final. I know for sure that I don’t want to blink or I’ll miss the race. I think I really need to remember to bring my ear plugs on Monday, the day of the men’s 800 final, or I could suffer some serious hearing lose. This thinking is based on what happened in the 800 semis today. Eugene fans make plenty of racket when even outsiders perform well but when three locals cruised into the 800 final, the noise coming out of the spectator stands caused the noise decimal meter reader to sore right off the scale. If either Oregon Track Club member Nick Symmonds, who came out of the second heat as the fastest overall qualifier in 1:45.61, or University of Oregon sophomore, Andrew Wheating, who finished second in his heat, or Oregon Track Club member, Christian Smith, who finished 3rd in the heat won by Symmons, race will enough to punch a ticket to Beijing, (finish in the top 3) Hayward Field is going to erupt—thus my need for ear plugs. I didn’t occupy my seat at the meet until about 2:30 PM today so that gave me time to ride my rent a bike about 3 miles over to Anncon Coffee Co where I could connect my iBook to their WiFi signal and post day 2 of my blog. That accomplished, I biked over to the U of O bookstore and purchased 2 souvenir t-shirts. One has a big red stop sight on it with the words “Stop Pre”. I don’t know the significance of that slogan but I’m told that is the same kind of t-shirt Prefontaine use to wear so I guess if it was good enough for him, it’s more than good enough for me. Matt Holman sent me an e-mail saying that it would be cool if I could interview Jeshua Anderson and put that on the blog but getting access to the athletes is nearly impossible unless you have press credentials. So, imagine my surprise as I’m walking back to my room after the meet to run into Anderson and some other Washington State athletes outside the security fence of the stadium grounds. I didn’t get an interview but I did talk to him for a few minutes. He wasn’t happy about his performance in the semi-finals of the 400H especially after leading all qualifiers that came out for the quarterfinals. He said that he’s just really tired after all the racing and traveling that he’s been doing and looks forward to coming back home for a while to rest up and see some of his friends. Then it will be back to Washington State where he says he will have to make a decision about playing football or putting all his energy and training into track where he might have a chance to earn a good living. So, some more food for thought. What do you think he should do? Continue with football and track or focus on his track career?

minus 1 day and counting

You would think that a University Town like Eugene would have a zillion wifi spots to let me post my daily blog but not so. I tried Starbucks yesterday (Friday) but I found out the hard way that they don’t support Apple’s Safari browser (and yet they work with Apple to let you down load iTunes on your iPhone). I finally found a place that has wifi but it’s far from U of O so I don’t know how often I’ll get over here: Here’s what I had hoped to post yesterday, Friday, as my blog will always be at least one day behind the current date:

Compared to getting to LAX from the Valley, getting to Ontario from Beaumont is a breeze. From checking in, checking baggage, and getting checked out at security, the benefits of a smaller airport are readily evident. But one thing a small airport has in common with a big airport is delayed flights. Because it seems that half of California is on fire, my 9:46 AM flight to the Bay Area didn’t materialize until 11:13. Thankfully I made my connecting flight from San Francisco to Eugene with 40 minutes to spare. At SFO I meet up with three track and field friends that I have share many track meets with. Our 90 minute sky ride put us into Eugene, the Track Capital of the World, a little after 3 P.M. The Eugene airport was very festive with welcoming committees, banners, and poster celebrating the Olympic Trials evident everywhere. Our short but $35.00 taxi ride dumped us off on the campus of the University of Oregon (Go Ducks) where we checked into the residence halls at the Hamilton complex, which will be our home (when we aren’t at the track) for the next 11 nights. Sure, it is student housing but how can you pass up a deal that includes room and board for $65 dollars a day. Motel 6 might leave the light on for you but they won’t fill you up with food 3 times a day for that price. It has been a long time since I’ve spent any time in a student dorm but from the minute I walked into my room here I realized that not much has changed since the 60s. The room is small, equipped with two beds (no Sleep # Mattress on these beds), two closets fit only for people that don’t have much to wear, two student desks, and one light in the ceiling. Oh yeah, each desk has a chair, not as comfortable as an electric chair but safer to sit in. Now, what do you think of when you think of student cafeterias, which is where we eat? Well, my memories make me think of the word, “Yuck” so when I got up here I thought I’d be on a starvation diet. Now, I worried about packing on 10 extra pounds. The food in the all you can eat buffet is nothing short of delicious. There are a wide variety of fresh fruits, salads, pastas, vegetables, and assorted meats. My first meal today was dinner and it included fresh salmon. I’m sure a meal like I had would have been $18 or more back home. If you asked students why they chose the U of O they would probably say, “It’s the food, stupid.” Speaking of food, here is a little food for thought. Do you think anyone can beat American Record Holder, Shalane Flanagan, (she is Chinese of course) in tomorrow’s only final, the 10,000 meter run? For the uninitiated, that is about 6.2 miles.

two days and counting down

After two years of planning, the big event is almost here. I fly out of Ontario at 9:46. Transfer at San Fransico and get into Eugene about 3:30. I know a lot of cities claim to be the track capital of the world but Eugene gets my vote. I've been there for NCAA Championships, Olympic Trials, and a few other similar rinky-dink meets (:> and I can tell you that electricity is in the air whenever you are inside Hayward Field. The fans are so knowledgeable. I think they teeth them on stopwatches when they are very young. When the racing, throwing, or jumping gets hot, the stands are rockin. The stamping, clapping, and cow bell ringing are thunderous. (There's a story that goes around about the fans up there. They use to say that Prefontaine was so popular that the fans started clapping for him even if he just bent over to tie his shoe laces) Then the setting of the meet is phonominal. Talk about Green. That is all you see up there - trees, grass, and flowers flurish in that climate. The Willemett River runs through the town and the Steve Prefontaine running trail makes a loop that follows the river. The Olympic Trials might not produce the exact top times that win Olympic Gold but for pure excitement it can't be beat. The drama of watching elite athletes giving 110 % to make the top 3 and go on to Bejing is unmatched in any theater that I know of. The heartbreak of watching the 4th place finisher deal with his/her frustrations and disappontments is also very dramatic and painful. I'm not sure how this blog will work out. My goal to recount the highlights of each day but whether or not I'll have internet access and the time to accomplish this remains to be seen. Be sure to follow this great show on TV. (disclaimer: any and all spelling errors are purely fictional)