Silver....

I arrive in Spokane hoping to not only defend my 800m title from Orono but also try to duplicate what John Hinton had done in 06 in Charlotte, win both the 800m and 1,500m titles.
In the 800m I always knew Neil Fitzgerald of Central Park Track Club posed my biggest threat coming in w/ a 1.57 seed time,my pr was last years 1.59.17 so in order to beat Neil I was going to probably have to pr.
Thursdays semis were waived as only 11 of the now 17 of us{I only counted 14 on the schedule online}declared,like last year a double edged sword,one less race to run but now I sat around from Wednesday till Saturday waiting to race.
Saturday arrived and when I reached the track at 11.15am I declared and learnt hip numbers were being given out at 1.45pm now that I had a time frame to work w/in I knew how to kill the next two and a half hours,ipod in hand I calmed myself listening to Coldplay,s "Parachutes" as I walked the perimeter of Spokane Fall Community College keeping myself to myself.
Come 1pm I retreated to the baseball/softball field behind the track to stretch and do my mile warm up b4 returning to the athletes tent to receive my lane #,3 and walked to the infield of the track to await our call to the track.
Somehow dispite 11 of us declaring on Thursday the field was now 12 which meant a waterfall start,in the general scheme of things no big deal,we,d brake at the first turn instead of running the first bend in lanes,Neil was in lane one,his team mate Gladstone in lane two and me in three,I,d have my two main rivals on my inside,my reaction to the gun was good again as we broke for the first turn.......out of nowhere from one of the outside lanes Warren McCulloch from Canada got inbetween the CPTC guys and me......this was not in the script and remembering what my coach had told about not allowing anybody to get between me and my main rivals in either race I bided my time till 300m when I swung wide of Warren to move up on the outside of lane one as Gladstone and Neil lead us to the bell.
I,d said all along the bell was where this race would be decided,I,ve been going through 400m in 59 seconds all season,anything faster and I,d be treading new waters,anything slower and I,d be licking my chops.........61 seconds at the bell.
I never thought twice about it,I struck for home,it,s a ballsy move but it felt like the right one to make,I had no idea what reaction was going on behind me I had a clear track ahead of me and I was prepared to run all out to get to the line ahead of the field,w/ hindsight I wish maybe I,d waited till 300m,maybe 250m however as I,ve been known to say on more than one occasion"the genie is out of the bottle now"I also wished I,d found another gear at 200m to go but I was truly putting my pedal to the metal as my 58 second closing 400m bore witness.
W/ 60m to go Neil came up along side me,I tried to find another gear but I didn,t have it,Neil hit the line in 1.59.51 w/ me just a hair behind him in 1.59.82.
I done all I could to retain my title but my best wasn,t enough to beat Neil,I always said if I ran my race I,d be hard to beat,I have to give all the credit in the world to Neil,w/out him in the field I feel confident I,d have won but it was no disgrace to be beaten by him,on the day we were the only two 800m runners to beat 2.00,my second sub 2 in the 800m at Nationals.
Was I disappointed?yes,I came to Spokane to win both the 800m and 1,500m but as GP would later tell me at least l lost running my race and to run 1.59.82 off a negative split was nothing to hang my head over.
At least I could smile that come the medal presentation on the podium there were two Irishmen atop in gold and silver,last year winning the 800m may,ve subconsciously forced me to drop my intensity level b4 the 1,500m final,now having lost this final I was hungry for gold in tomorrows 1,500m.