Audere Est Facere

For those of you not up on your latin the translation from the title is"To Dare Is To Do"......I only know this because it,s the motto of my beloved Tottenham Hotspurs but it feels appropriate somehow.
Were this any other track meet I don,t think I,d have ran given my recent stress fracture and the fact "technically"I hadn,t been cleared to run by my foot doctor who when he finds out I ran is likely to have a few choice words for me,team mate or not,that said as a fellow runner I think he could fathom the magnatude of my desire to run at the Millrose Games and I,ll deal w/ any or all fallout when I go back to see him on Feb13th.
I rode upto Trenton w/ my good friend and fellow master runner Lorraine Jasper who was anchoring her team Athena in the womens race that preceeded ours,and while any time spent in the company of a beautiful woman is not to be taken lightly traveling up together didn,t allow me time to get too deep into my head in the hours leading upto the race.
We met up w/ Chuck,Ray and Scott at Hamilton on route to Penn Station in Manhatten and arrived around 3.35pm,an hour later we were allowed into Madison Square Garden,although not allowed on the hallowed 4 lane 145m board track,making the fact we were able to run on it two years ago even more special and unique.
After saying my hellos to the fellow masters athletes I,ve grown to know over the past three years and sharing a few moments w/ my coach GP who I should point out was an opponent on the Shore AC A team I began to jog as best we could in the limited space behind the track,I was putting the finishing touches to my stretches when the call went up for the Mens Masters 4x400m relay runners to report to the paddock,this was it.
We,d opted w/ a line up of Scott leading off,Ray second,Chuck third and yours truly anchoring and while anchoring is an honour it,s fair to say under these circumstances it was more strategic.I couldn,t blame my team mates for wanted to protect their chance to forfill their Millrose Games dreams,this was never just about me,it never should be on a relay and while I would,ve been majorly upset if they,d have said my place on the team was prehaps a liability I would,ve understood,albeit begrudgingly,it never came to that,Scott,Chuck,Ray and I have been through a lot together as team mates and on relays and I hope have a few more adventures still ahead of us,whatever our own personal goals were tonite we are a team and I wanted to repay my team mates faith in me by running the best I could.
I,d love to quote splits and blow by blow accounts of each leg of the relay but the truth was just like the Penn Relays it all happens so quickly,just like my 06 Penn Relays debut I tried to take it all in in case I never made it back while hoping I would.As anchor leg I was positioned at the far end of the home straight away,I customarily blessed myself as I do when I step on and off any track and as is my custom b4 a race I got down on one knee and said a quick prayer to God,the venues may change but the prayer is always the same"dear God please help me run to the best of my ability and do your will amen"I rose from the track,blessed myself,a double fist pump to the heart and a kiss of the fingers b4 a skyward bound jesture to the heavens,pre race rituals over it was time to focus on the race.
I think Scott brought us through in 5th b4 handing off to Ray who may,ve gotten us upto 4th b4 his hand off to Chuck,2 and 3/4 laps of the track later I took my place in lane one waiting for the baton,a clean hand off and I gave chase to the anchor legs of Southwest Sprinters and Central Park Track Club who infairness were well clear of me,going into the race I honestly thought it,d be Southwest,C.P.T.C.and 2nd Wind duking out the top three places w/ ourselves and the two Shore AC teams scraping for the minor places.
I had no idea where or how close Shore AC A,s anchor leg Bob Andrews was behind me but to be honest I was just trying to focus on running my leg,3rd at the bell all I had to do was hold on for another 145m and the improbable would become reality a medal,something I never considered in the build up as there was enough going on to begin w/ w/out adding medal aspirations to the mix.
The finish line at Millrose is halfway up the track not like the traditional end of the straightaway but tonite sadly for me it was 20/30 meters too far,I was never going to try and get up on my toes tonite,I couldn,t risk putting any more pressure on my still healing stress fracture and my lack of conditioning took it,s toll.In the version of the race I,d ran over and over in my mind I,d come off that final turn and storm to the finish line just like Eamonn had seven times between 1977 and 1987,in reality I,d given all I had coming to the home straight only to have Bob Andrews get by me and nab the final medal 3.52.04 to 3.52.52.
Now b4 the obvious gets stated,yes I,m painfully aware that Eamonn finished 4th in 2 Olympics and also that I,d defied all sorts of obstacles and barriers tonite just to be on the track so I have no right to be churlish about missing out on medal that b4 the gun went off I,d given no creedence to winning,but that,s the runner I am,never settling for second best,I do believe it,s in all runners dna to always think "what if "following a race no matter how great a performance,tonite was no different.
After reuniting w/ my team mates I got to share in some post race celebrations,I don,t think we,d dared think the race could,ve gone so well under the circumstances but it had,I thanked Scott,Chuck and Ray for having faith in me to get the job done and also help forfill my dream of running the Millrose Games.Gp congratulated me and joked how I,d put him in the precarious position of being forced to root between his friend/athlete and his own team mate,he was proud of me and my efforts and so was I.
So what next?after the dust settles tomorrow GP and I will look ahead to Indoor Nationals in eight weeks and begin to draw up a battle plan but in the bigger scheme of things and to answer a question Scott had posed prior to tonites race,what else is there on my running list?Well there,s World Masters in Finland next year and again in Sacramento in 2011,to run at famed Haywards Field in Eugene{I,m 3 seconds off of a quallifying mark of 9.35 that,d make me eligable for the Masters exhibition 3,000m event this July at the USATF National C,ships/Olympic Trials}and to come back to the Millrose Games,this time fully fit and who knows maybe snag a medal?
Two years ago I ran here at the Millrose Games which was more than I could,ve dared dream way back when I first started to run,now I,ve raced here so the next step is to medal here,in running as in life you should always dare to dream,sometimes dreams come true.