The fact I was lining up for the 800m final was remarkable in it's self,following December's World Reecord in the 4x800m I'd steered clear of the 800m{not because my opening lap of 26 seconds had mentally scared me I hasten to add!!!}I always said this season was time to step outside of my comfort zone so I moved up to 3,000m indoors w/ a view to moving up to 5,000m outdoors w/ no intention of racing 800m at Nationals..............and then on May 29th I ran 5x1,000m repeats in 3.02.9. 3.05.5. 3.05.3. 3.09.7. 3.05.3. and started to believe I still had wheels for the 800m and on June 14th went:3.02.0. 3.03.5. 3.01.3. 3.02.4. 2.57.8.,I hastily rescheduled my final pre Nationals race from a 3,000m to a 800m where I logged a 2.03.7. and entered the 800m hoping there wouldn't be prelims as they'd fall right after the 5,000m,a roll of the dice that paid off only 10 of us in the M45 800m and we were rolled to a final.....
Only 6 of the 10 runners declared,two notable scratches Pete Magill and Kevin Paulk so a 6 man final,I forget the exact lane assignments other than yours truly being in lane 1,my guess is that's a reward for the fastest seed time,frankly I'd like to see an Olympic/World Championships system in place where the fastest seed times/qualifiers get the middle lanes because what happens is in an 8 man race,7 runners are collapsing into lane 1 at the top of the back straight so unless you time it right you're not in front.
My reaction to the gun wasn't great I will confess,I've had better starts this season,but I've also had worse and by the time I made up the stagger as we broke at the top of the back straight I found myself at the rear of the field,not phased by this I made sure to move out into lane 2 to at least give myself a clear run....however the field was tightly bunched so much so that you could've thrown a blanket over the leader and covered the entire field,I was almost out in lane 3 coming up the home straight,tactically I wasn't having a good day and w/ hindsight maybe not having ran many 800s since my indoor season last year was coming back to bite me.
62 seconds at the bell,I was looking for 61 so at least that was going to plan,the problem was I was still at the back of the field and having witnessed first hand the closing speed of Mike Blackmore in the 5,000m I knew if he made a move I may be too far back to counter it......IF I could have a do over in the 800m it would be to have stuck to my pre race plan of sitting till 200m to go then kicking,instead I made my move w/ 300m to going from 6th to 1st in meters and shaking up the race.
Coming off the final turn I tried to find another gear...I didn't have it,my knee lift wasn't where I wanted it to be and I almost felt like I was running in sand,I sensed someone coming up on my outside and tried everything I had to hold him off................
30 meters from the finish Mike Blackmore went by me I tried to get him but I just couldn't,who knows how different the outcome would've been if I'd waited till 200m to go to kick,a question that will be asked over and over this summer,fall and winter,as I said when Neil Fitzgerald caught me in almost the same spot in Spokane in 08 when I kicked at 300m to go"live by the sword,die by the sword"
How close was the finish? Mike Blackmore 2.02.1. me 2.02.4. Jeff Mann 2.02.5......wow.
Am I disappointed I just missed the gold?hell yeah,that said given my lack of 800m races,5 in the last 16 months including Decembers 4x800m World Record I think Silver in 2.02.4.{5th fastest time of all time} is impressive and w/ a little more attention to detail and a few more 800m races under my belt I may get it right next time a title is on the line,lest we forget it took the great Seb Coe 8 years to finally win a major 800m title 1986's European C'ships after close calls in Prague 78,Moscow 80,Athens 82,Los Angeles 84 over 800m
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment