6/29/08 Day Three
The third day of the trials is a Sunday and one of the shorter days. This is one to see some of the other activities going on. I slept in a little and had a leisurely breakfast. I sat at a table with a group of runners from Boston and New York. Although they were all older than I was it interesting that we had things in common. Several of them had run in Reno at the Masters indoor championships where I ran and helped put the meet together. The runner sitting to my right turned out to be the operations director for the Denver Marathon. We had a very interesting conversation, and knew many of the same people in the city involved with the race. I also met for the first time Sidney Howard. Sidney is a charismatic young man of 69 years and has probably been running since before I was born. He seemed to know everyone and hand numerous stories and reminiscences of meets, races and individual competitors. I Googled Sidney later that day, Yes I finally checked my email, and he is the American record holder for 800 meters ant age 60 and 65 running 2:14:75 and 2:19:40 respectively. Having run a few 800s after I turned 40, let me tell you that is flying.
After breakfast I visited the art museum at the university. They had an exhibit on Olympic photography from 1984-2004. The pictures were excellent, bringing back memories of things I’d seen on TV and others that hadn’t make it to prime time. A wonderful exhibit if you ever have the chance to see it.
I made it over to the track about 3 pm to watch the 400 women’s quarterfinals and the men’s pole vault. The Olympic trials are a circus of activity with a running event and usually 2-3 field events going on at any one time. It was a good thing they had the big screens going at both ends of the stadium. It provided an opportunity to see replays of those great moments you missed as you were watching something else.
100m: Tyson Gay continues to amaze, running 9.68 in the finals of the 100 to run the fastest time ever under any conditions. Unfortunately the wind was above the legal limits so it did not count as a world record.
Pole Vault: Brad Walker, the current American record holder, won and will be going to Beijing. However the most exciting thing of the evening was the second place finish in the pole vault. Jeff Hartwig, who had not made an Olympic team since 1996, finished second with a height of 18’8.25” at age 41. Hooray for the old guys!
400m Men’s Hurdles: Bershawn “Batman” Jackson & Kerron Clement take 1-2 in the men’s hurdles with the veteran Angelo Taylor in third. This is a strong US team and a sweep in the hurdles is within the realm of possibility.
400m Women’s Hurdles: Tiffany Ross-Williams made her first Olympic team, followed by Queen Harrison and Sheena Tosta.
400m: In the quarterfinals of the men’s 400 Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt won there respective heats and moved on getting us all ready for a showdown. The only race Wariner has lost in the past 4 years was earlier this summer to Merritt. I realized that three of the runners moving on to the next round had all gone to Baylor, where Michael Johnson ran.
The last race was over about 4:30 so I went back to the dorms to grab some food. I had just finished eating when my friend Ray and his family walked by and asked if I wanted to go to a barbeque. Although I wasn’t hungry it sounded like fun and an opportunity to try a few more local microbrews.
We drove about 20 minutes south east of Eugene, only taking 1 wrong turn and ended up at a house on a large parcel 5-10 acres on top of a hill, it was a great setting, trees, meadows and a good view. There were about 60 people there. I recognized a few form when I ran in Northern California, guys who ran at Davis, Humboldt, and Cal Poly SLO. After every one had been there a while and had a chance to mingle, they did a few introductions; the first person introduced was Tommy Leonard who had started the run yesterday. I had a brief opportunity to talk to him and found him to be a very outgoing and funny individual. The next person introduced was Billy Squires, track coach of Boston College and Bill Rodgers. He told a couple of stories about the team and how Bill Rodgers started running with them.
I met several college coaches from Northern California and talked to Jordan Hassay’s coach about what she might be able to do in the 1500. QE had been there an hour or two when a car pulled up and three people got out. I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention until one of the guys I was talking to pointed and said “there’s Joanie” It was, Joan Benoit-Samuelson. This was turning into a great barbeque. The best part was watching Joan play Duck Duck Goose with a bunch of the little kids.