Batting A Thousand/Emil The Great

My 1,000th blog entry here on Blogspot since transferring from AOL People Connection on Nov 30th 07.
I'd like to thank everyone who reads Running Free be it on a regular or semi regular basis,I've often said writing a blog is a bit like being a late nite DJ as you can't be sure if anyone is actually listening to you,thanks to all the comments I get I know someone is reading all this so thank you...even the haters your comments just serve as fuel to the fire.

Rather than wait till tomorrow I did the online registration for Nationals today,earlier this week only 3 runners had signed up for the 5,000m and only 2 for the 10,000m,including myself the entries stand at 9 for the 5,000m and 6 for the 10,000m,we'll see what activity happens tomorrow b4 the 5pm deadline.

And so to my run,wow did I ever luck out w/ my choice of 10,000m icons,the great Emil Zatopek.
In London in 48 he took gold in the 10,000m and silver in the 5,000m b4 hitting the triple trifecta in Helsinki in 52,gold in the 5,000m,10,000m and marathon.
One of my favourite Zatopek stories is from the 52 Olympic marathon after 15k he turned to the leader and then World record holder and Jim Peters and asked him what he thought of the pace"I think it's a little slow" said Peters.....if he was trying to psych out Zatopek he failed,Zatopek took off and won the gold,Peters dropped out.
Another great Zatopek story involved Ron Clarke the Australian distance king who for all his world records only had an Olympic bronze in the 10,000m(Rome 64) to show for his efforts
In 66 Zatopek invited Clarke to Prague to race in either a 1,500m or 3,000m race,as he prepared to fly back to Australia Zatopek pressed a small package into Clarke's hand,Clarke always tells how he thought Zatopek was giving him something to smuggle out of the then occupied Czechoslovakia,upon checking the package Clarke was blown away to unwrap Zatopek's Helsinki 10,000m gold w/ the inscription"You deserve this",hard not to be impressed by such a gesture.

In the spirit of Zatopek I attacked my 6 miler tonite,early splits of 3.45,9.01,13.58 lead me to believe something fast was on tap,21.26 at the turn around,my only concern was last Monday I went out in 21.40 only to come back in 22.17 for a combined 43.57......
No such worries this evening,perhaps the fact I haven't ran a 6 milers since last Wednesday and won't run another hard 6 miler till July 19th spured me on to a negative split of 21.26/21.21 for a seasons best time of 42.47.6. a full 54 seconds faster than my June 14th 43.41.7.
I felt strong tonite,maybe all the added Vitamin C is doing the trick,as the first half of the year draws to a close tonite I hope a stronger,faster second half is on tap.