Thursday, January 29, 2009

A Return To The Promised Land

In a week that sees the new Bruce Spingsteen cd released,a Superbowl half time performance and the announcement of two farewell Philadelphia Spectrum shows it comes as no major surprize I picked a Springsteen song title as my pre Millrose blog entry does it??
For those new to me and my blog here,s the cliff notes version of what the Millrose Games and Madison Square Gardens mean to me.
In the summer of 1976 back home in South East London when my now 33 year running career began MSG and the famed Millrose Games might as well,ve been on the moon,I,d never get to run there......or would I???
Fast forward almost 30 years to Feb 06 and as the alternate runner on the alternate team I forfilled the dream of a lifetime by doing a few laps on the hallowed 145m boards that my hero Eamonn Coghlan had majestically made his own between 1977 and 1987 w/ 7 Wanamaker Mile victories, a dream come true...............but I was left wanting more.
Feb 08,thanks to a powerhouse quartet of Scott Landis,Ray Parker,Daryl Johnson and myself we,d ran our fastest ever 4x4 time the previous April at the equally famed Penn Relays and equally majestic Franklin Field we were going to the 08 Millrose Games at last..................cue a stress fracture on my left foot in mid December,cue The Sundays singing"Here,s Where The Story Ends".................WRONG!!
In a defiant jesture of mind over body and a modern day version of the flesh being weak but the spirit being more than willing I did the unthinkable and anchored us to a heroic 4th place finish but couldn,t help but wonder at the outcome had I,ve been fully fit,would I get another chance?if so would it be this year??would the final outcome be different next time around???
The first two parts to that question have been answered,it,s all in the hands of fate and in the feet of my team mates to make sure the third part of the equation gets answered tomorrow evening,the number three plays a major part in the whole story,but for that you,ll have to check back on Saturday to see how.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Kevin,
Was at Milrose in a box seat...
You were seated below us...
out of hearing range. See you in MD.
Francis