The Italian Job

In the early 80s there were a number of top 10,000m runners in the world Lopes,Mamede,Schildhauer and the man who pulled off the unique treble of European,World and Olympic gold, tracks version of The Italian Stallion Alberto Cova.
Werner Schildhauer must still have nightmares from Athens 82 European Championships and Helsinki 83 World Championships leading coming off the bottom turn only to see Cova spint by him in the final meters to claim both golds.
I still remember the 84 Los Angeles Olympics 10,000m as one of the first Olympic 10,000m races I watched,I don't think I watched Viren in Montreal in 76 and was probably consumed w/ hatred for Yifter in Moscow in 80 as a rival to my hero Eamonn Coghlan later in the 5,000m but in LA Cova once again played the waiting game sitting behind leader Marti Vainio until the bell lap b4 unleashing his customary kick this time at the bell and upon crossing the finish line pulled out a minature Italian flag from the waist band of his shorts as he did his lap of honour.
As a kicker myself it was hard not to love Cova,he could seem out of a race on the back straight and then BOOM 200m to go and he looked a sprinter not a distance runner.
A number of Italian 5,000m and 10,000m runners came on the scene after Cova and some had great success but none were able to reproduce Alberto's triple crown of European,World and Olympic golds which set him apart from the pack.

It was no surprise then I chose Alberto Cova as my final 10,000m hero b4 heading to Berea and Nationals next week on my final hard 6 milers tonite.
I wanted tonite to be as hard a run as possible being my last all out 6 miler b4 heading to Nationals and I didn't allow the 93 degree heat to put me off,setting off at 4.30pm I clipped off splits of 3.46,9.04 and 14.06 on my way to a turnaround time of 21.48.
I knew I was a little down on my previous turnaround split of 21.26 but that nite wasn't 93 degs and to be honest tonite was more about trying to visualize the upcoming 10,000m than anything,go out hard and try not to wilt in the heat.
W/ 2 miles to go I clocked 28.58 I knew a sub 43 time wasn't on the cards but I felt sub 44 was there for the taking providing I kept doing what I was doing and also trying to imagine the last 8 laps on the track next Saturday.
I managed a second half in 21.57 to finish in 43.45.4. my 3rd fastest 6 miler of the 12 I've ran since June 5th and a nice build up to my final week of prep,w/ extreme heat on the forecast it remains to be seen what kind of workouts I'll be able to get in but if there was a week to be forced to sit out a day or two this would be the week,let's just take it day to day and see what unfolds.