Been A Long Time Since I Took The Gold.....

When I won the 2008 National Masters 1,500m in Spokane it felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders,in high school in my junior and senior year I'd been runner up in the 1,500m but now I finally had a major 1,500m title to my name,given my track career began as a high school freshaman in 76 it had only taken 32 years!!!!!!
Since that glorious morning in Spokane in 08 my record over 1,500m at Nationals had read thus: 10 Sacramento runner up and 12 Lisle fourth,after a six year gap did I have what it took to reclaim top spot in the metric mile???

W/ the new schedule at Nationals this year I had the luxury of two recovery days after the 800m which frankly suited me,however the fact the M50 5,000m fell on the Saturday the day b4 the 1,500m probably didn't help a few of my rivals who had signed up for both,in fact three of the four guys who had entered both opted against the 1,500m on Sunday morning,while sympathetic to their plight it did however remove three potential threats to my my 4th National Championship quest.
Race day morning arrived bright and early at 6.45am in order for me to walk over to the campus of Wake Forest b4 8.20am to declare for my 9.20 gun time,I felt confident but also nervous,you'd think after thirty eight years of competitive track that pre race nerves wouldn't effect me but they do.....that said I've said over the past several years "I'd be nervous if I wasn't nervous"!!! and as long as the line at the batrooms/portajohns isn't long I'm generally ok!!!!!!

Declaration and warm up/ stretches taken care of it was back to the check in tent for hip numbers,#4 for me a chilling reminder of my 4th place finish in Lisle two years ago,that race has haunted me for two years but again like I often say "saying you learn nothing from a loss is looking at it the wrong way" what I learnt the hard way that day was kicking too soon at 400m to go todays plan was wait till 200m then drop the hammer......
From the gun I settled into 5th behind Micheal Sherar,Paul Osland,RubenHenderson and David Bailey but moved into 4th after 100m....only to be relegated to 5th again after 200m by Derek Larner the fellow Brit who'd pushed me in the 800m unseeded heat.
51 seconds at 300m,my mantra all summer has been "53-71-71-71=4.26'' however the caveat to that was the feeling I could go faster if need be,in a season where I've been in 1,500m/mile races where more often than not I was the "old man" in the field at Nationals in my own age group I felt I finally had a level playing.....although going head to head verses Micheal and Paul didn't seem that level!!!!!

I moved by Ruben after 500m and b4 600m moved passed Derek now it was me verses two of the worlds best.....no pressure it's only the National Championships at stake here!!!!!
If memory serves correctly I went through 700m in 2.02 a 71 second split right where I visualized the race on my easy.recovery and long runs the past several weeks
At 750m I went by Paul,to his credit Paul had told me pre race as we waited to toe the starting line he may drop out due to his left achilles bothering him,for someone who this time a year ago was on the DL w/ his right achilles I could sympathize and I also thought it was very stand up of Paul to tell me pre race not to base my race off of him.....props and respect.
Remember my pre race mantra "DON'T kick untill 200m to go"????? that flew out the window w/ 600m to go!!!!!
A I was feeling good this was how i felt back in Orono in 07 en route to my first National Championship over 800m when I was chomping at the bit after 200m but convinced myself to wait till the bell b4 striking for home and B w/ Michael's phenomenal 400m speed did I really want to chance waiting for the final 200m?

Off I went,in the back of my mind was the thought that even if Michael did reel me in as a Canadien runner he could win the race{like he did over 400m and 800m} but I could still be National Champion.....and while that was a nice safety net my feeling was "bugger that if I'm gonna be National Champion I want to cross the finish line first!!!!!"
3.11 at the bell a 69 second split,I was feeling strong and frankly wasn't entertaining any notions of being caught,I wasn't sure how much of a lead i had over Micheal{although having watched the race video a few time post race it looked like 10 meters}and I just kept doing what I'd been doing for the opening 1,100m.
10 meters from the finish I allowed myself the chance to enjoy the moment,it's been 6 years since I last won  a National Championship over 1,500m and 3 years since my last National Championship over 10,000m this moment may not come my way ever again{but believe me I'll do everything w/in me to make sure it does!!!} so why not live in the moment???
4.21.43......so much for my 4.26 projected time not to mention the fact my opening 1,500m outdoors this season back on May 29th was only a 4.31.50.......
Splits of 51-71-69-70 and to quote my former coach "there's more meat on that bone" I believe in my heart of hearts I can go faster but b4 I start thing about that and all the leg work that will go into making that happen let me just enjoy this moment and relish the satisfaction of being National Champion again,all the hard work,dedication and sacrifices paid off but you know me I'm not one to scale the peaks just to admire the view.....I'm already thinking about the next challenge ahead......