One Last Time/Food For Thought

Final run of the year today,wasn,t looking too hopeful at lunch time w/ some snow flakes falling but by the time I,d excused myself one last time from ye olde loading dock and got home just after 4pm mild mannered{yes I,m taking the piss!!} loading dock foreman by day gave way to running machine Top Cat and while I wasn,t clearing tall buildings w/ a single bound I was rounding Clark Park at a decent rate of speed one last time in 08.
As I compleated my tour of duty I thought about the year that,s about to expire in less than three and and a half hours it started w/ my foot in a cast and a few concerns about making it back to the high level I,d reached pre stress fracture in 07 and would I return to that level?
The answer was a resounding yes,dispite being only two days removed from my surgical boot I forfilled the dream of a lifetime and raced at famed Madison Square Garden in the Millrose Games,a dream come true,sadly a not surprizing lack of conditioning cost us third place off the final turn but I had no grounds to complain,I had no right being there and yet there I was flying in the face of it and defying the odds.
Millrose proved to be the only highlite of my disappointing indoor season, I was glad to see the back of it and turn my attention to outdoor track,Penn Relays in front of almost 50,000 fans was another highlite reel not just for the year but in my career.
4x4 duties taken care of it was time to focus on my marquee events the 800m and 1,500m/mile and how!!!
A 2.03.07 800m followed by a pair of 1,500m victories in 4.21 and 4.14 took me into June on a high that never waned,when a 2.03.72 800m is considered a setback you know you,re cooking,my only 1,500m/mile defeat of the outdoor season saw me clock a 4.12.65. b4 clocking a 2.02.45. 800m.
July saw two final races b4 my trip to Ireland and also my final tune ups b4 Nationals a 4.28.9 mile and a 2.00 800m,no wonder I enjoyed a weeks worth of running along the beach in Ballybunion humming the theme to "Chariots Of Fire"
August and everything in Spokane, a tantilizingly close defeat in the 800m final 1.59.51-1.59.82 but a career first 1,500m title in 4.10.78. and a third consecutive 4x800m gold,track was winding down as I began my yearly six weeks of hill repeats on Belmont Plateau,track swansong a 4.31.83. mile at the Wisahickon Wanderers meet.
September and all my hard work for the season paid off, a stunning 4.12 5th Avenue Mile victory to cement my growing reputation as a masters miler and then the unexpected bonus of a XC season I never imagined, a 6k pr b4 heading down to N.Carolina to compeat in XC Masters Nationals where against all odds I finished 9th,three days later I finished 3rd at the Catholic League 5k C,ships on Belmont Plateau b4 notching another pr this time over 8k at the NJ XC C,ships,as my coach "Charlie Dibble" later pointed out my success at XC was all the more remarkable by virtue of the fact we,d done nothing specific towards XC and yet here I was clocking pr,s and setting club records.
November, redemption over the 5 mile course at VCP in "Bad Boy" followed by a sub 17 3 miler the following week,sadly the peak of my XC season dispite two more races later in the month,just as my stress fracture had proven how life can and will throw you a curve ball my work schedule was thrown for a loop as situations out of my control dictated my day to day routines,dispite the industrial spanner in the works I managed an 8th place at Brandywine and a course pr b4 a 6th place at the testing 8K Belmont course.
December,indoor track,not so much a false start in the 4x4 more of a non start but a week later when improvisation became the mother of necessity I clocked a 2.03.01.800m a far cry from the indoor 800m races I tried to run in Feb and March b4 rounding out the year w/ a hard fought 4.39.41. 1,600m.
While my credo in life is"It,s All About The Run" away from training and racing the highlites were Spurs winning the Carling Cup,a weekend in New York to see The Cure b4 racing,going home to "the motherland" Turkey reaching the Euro semis,rediscovering my love of THE ALARM and of course meeting "The Queen Of The Slipsream"
As 08 winds down and 09 gears up thoughts turn to a new year,new challenges and new blog entries,run or no run manana I,ll address some of them tomorrow.
My final thought on the year that was goes out to the neysayers and haters{you know who you are}you can tell an Irishman,you just can,t tell him much......POGUE MAHONE,that,s gaelic for "kiss my arse"!!!!!!!!!