I could've been forgiven for thinking there wouldn't even be 10 races to list this year when I finished 12th and dead last in the mile at West Chester on June 3rd but thankfully over the second half of the year I was able to get a grip on my anemia and turn things around,the fact 7 of my top 10 races came in the second half of the year somewhat underlines that!
Of my 31 races in 2011 here are my top 10
10,World Championships 5,000m
Perhaps an odd selection given I finished 12th out of 18 in a paltry 16.54.1. but I was glad I made the trip to Sacramento to witness Worlds first hand,it gave me an insight to what I can expect in future years when hopefully I'm firing on all cylinders
9,5th Avenue Mile
Initially I was far from impressed w/ my 8th place finish in 4.36 it wasn't till almost 12 hours later that I checked the results to discover I'd won a third consecutive M45-49 title thanks in part to a barn storming final 400m where I over took Chris Collins and Gladstone Jones,the moral of this race keep fighting till the very end!!
8,Masters Mile Boston
I've always loved running at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston two Masters invitationals and three Indoor Nationals have produced some great performances but to run in front of a packed and appreciative audience at the New Balance Games in February was something special,7th in 4.33.0 would prove to be my fastest mile of the season.
7,Brandywine 5K XC
I'd never had any success at the post Thanksgiving Delaware XC C'hips in previous years,I'd always said of the demanding course I'd like to come into this race well trained......on the back of 11 weeks of 50/53 mile training weeks in 14 weeks I finished 4th in 18.28 my first ever sub 19 there.
6,Armory 3,000m
When I lowered my 3,000m pr to 9.07.1 in August of 2010 the next target was to get as close to 9 mins as possible in the hopes of eventually going sub 9 sadly any hopes of that this summer went south and had I not gotten sick in the days leading up to this Feb 24th race I'm confident I'd have been closer to 9.05 at least but had to settle for an indoor pr of 9.08.3 a 3 second improvement on my previous indoor pr
5,Armory 5,000m
My first ever indoor 5,000m and a continuation of my sub 16s as I ran my second fastest ever time for 5,000m w/ a 15.47.3.
On the basis of this performance on Jan 20th I has great expectations for the coming season,sadly that wasn't to be but having scaled those heights once I believe I can do it again
4,Armory 1,500m
In a year that uncharacteristically saw no 1,500s for me until the Armory Holiday Meet on Dec 26th I did produce the goods when I had to
2nd in 4.15.8. I hopefully answered the critics who once again had sharpened their pens prematurely to pen my running obituary earlier in the year,I'm not going anywhere just yet people!!!
3,Nationals 5,000m
While my time(16.45.0.) was very little to write home about it was the manner in which I raced to earn a second consecutive 5,000m bronze that warrented such a high position for this race.
I always felt a bronze was winnable but it would come down to a three way battle between myself Jeff Mann and Damon Blackford for it ,at Worlds I'd more or less thrown caution to the wind and just ran I would NOT be so cavalier at Nationals and after languishing in the middle of the pack for the first half of the race I caught Jeff Mann w/ 6 laps to go and then passed Damon Blackford w/ just over 3.5 laps to go to earn another podium finish at Nationals
2, Nationals 10,000m
I probably had very little right to consider myself a favourite to win the gold in Berea given my entire 10,000m resume stood at 2 races, 40.41.4. in London in 1987 and 34.43.3.last April and yet somehow I had the fastest seed time of the field.
Much like my indoor 5,000m earlier in the year I knew physically I had it the question was could I handle the mental side of 25 laps......no worries!!
Gold in 35.27.4. and a third National Championship title to go w/ my 800m title in Orono in 07 and my 1,500m title in Spokane in 08,just need a 5,000m title to make it a grand slam.
1,Bridge Run 10k
While my heart and soul belong to track I had to give top billing this year to a road race.
B4 I won gold on the track at 10,000m in late July my thoughts had been towards early November and the Ben Franklin Bridge 10k road race and a chance to erase my oldest pr 1984's 34.53. my holy grail in some respects.
Thanks to weeks and months of hard work and dedication my dream came true, a new pr 27 years in the making thanks to a 34.24. time.
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