fifteen-hundred meters as fast as you can

I just finished packing my bags for the Olympic Trials in Eugene in anticipation of my departure tomorrow morning. I have waited 4 years to avenge my 4th place finish from 2004. Since I began competing in track and field at the age of 14 it was always my dream to represent the US at the Olympics. I’m in the best shape of my life (meaning in the right race my PR of 3:33.28 is TOAST!), and mentally I’ve never been more hungry to compete and lay it all on line. I couldn’t be more excited for what lies ahead.

Over the last 10 years there have been a number of people who have been truly instrumental to my success and I want to thank everyone. Your love and support means more to me than anything I might accomplish on the track. This weekend is for all of you, namely: Jackie and Rich my loving parents; my grandparents who are my biggest fans in the world; my sister Erika who has shown me the beauty and grace that life allows; Juli Henner my coach of 6 years for guiding me and pushing me to believe that I can be one of the best runners in the world; Pat Henner, Greg Isham, Darryl Genest, Paul Prather, and Steve Neubauer, who coached me in various sports over the years and taught me so many things about the pursuit of sport; Sam Burley, Rod Koborsi, Fleet Hower, Steve Meinelt, Chris Esselborn, Tommy Manning, Tyler Campbell, Lindsey Holts, Chris Miltenburg, Mike Smith, Neil Grosscup, Dylan Welsh, and every other teammate I have ever shared the passion of the sport with; Tiffany Jow, Evan Hendrickson, Mike Ells, Jared Harman, Brandon Wentzel, Travis Volk, Amy Bowers, and Russel Gehrett who are my best friends from Auburn, WA and who I left behind to move to Washington, DC to pursue this drean; and thank you to everyone else that I might have left out. This is for you.

I’ve been riding a fixed gear (48×17 in case you wanted to know what gear) for the last 4 years. My friend Vikram from my Georgetown days got me hooked and it is now the only way I roll around the city, which is mostly to and from Whole Foods, Cafe St. Ex, and Baked and Wired. If you don’t know what the fixed gear scene is all about check out the free PDF version of the latest Fixed Magazine.

So I’m a little behind the times. As an old school buy-the-album-and-listen-to-it-over-and-over-again-start-to-finish-kind-of-guy, streaming audio just never really appealed to me. The only radio station I listen to is NPR/WAMU. I finally decided it was worth taking each of these sites for a spin. So I unplugged the auxiliary port from my turntable, routed it to my laptop, and found sweet, free, and perfectly legal music flowing through my apartment from pretty much any band I could think of. Including my new favorite band, Boeoes Kaelstigen. If you are a music junky and you are as still hooked to vinyl and CDs, maybe it is time to give these sites a whirl. check them out here and here. 

Ho hum. That pretty much sums up this past weekends result. 2 weeks ago I flew out to LA to run the Adidas Track Classic but had to pull out of the race after warming up with a tweaked hamstring that didn’t quite heal in time. In the long run it was smart not to take the chance of making things worse. However, it was agonizing having to watch my competition race from the side lines. After arriving back in DC it only took me a few more days of non-stop physio to get back to training. More importantly I was healthy enough to race in New York at the Reebok Grand Prix.

An hour long rain delay (on top of the fact that the meet was also pushed back an hour before it even started)  meant the gun went off around the time I am usually sound asleep. We went out in a blistering 39 seconds for the first 300 meters before slamming on the brakes and running a series of 59 to 61 second. With 200 to go I had myself in perfect position but just lacked the finishing speed I needed to win. At that point I ended up fading to 4th. 

I have gotten off to a slow start this year in terms of racing but I am finding myself rounding into form at the perfect time. I am still however, without the A standard. So for the past two weekends I have time trialed for all intents in purposes in two different states with two identical results. First was a hop, skip, and a jump up to Boston for the last High Performance Series meeting at Bentley College. The weather was quite warm, but I had my training partner Sam Burley and George Mason standout Mike Pachella pace me through 900m. We had perfect splits of 56.5, 1:54, and 2:53. The heat took its toll on me over the last 200m and I just barely held off a charging Nate Brannen for the win. We both ran 3:37.5, less than a second from the Olympic A standard. 

The next week my adventures took me Indianapolis for the final American Milers Club meeting. The weather was again perfect, although I am still trying to figure out why we didn’t start until 11:28PM. This time around Alan Webb agreed to come back after the 800m to pace us and once again I had the duty of being the guy out in front when Alan stepped off. We slowed a little from 1000m to 1200m and I panicked a bit because I really wanted to charge through 1200m in 2:51 knowing that if I did I would assuredly drop anyone sucking on me to my rear. Unfortunately we were just slow enough that we all stayed together and I became a sitting duck over the last 100m. Again the result was 3:37.51, only for 3rd place this time. Still short of the A standard, but now reassured that I am probably capably of 3:37 any day of the week even if I have to run it by myself. I am also reassured because prior to running a string of PR’s in 2006 I wasn’t capable of this sort of consistency nor did I feel this good at this pace. I know I am fit and I know that I am now heading to the trials to RACE! The time trials are over and it is on to race head to head with the best guys in the country to see who deserves a spot on the Olympic team. I was never any good at time trials anyway. (chances are that it will take the A standard to make the team, so my concern with chasing it is over)