Odds are I won't be attending any events at the actual Olympic games next year, so it's a huge treat that they'll be holding the Olympic men's marathon trials in the very same park where I run every day. I'm teeth-chatteringly excited about it. The only Olympic qualifications they had in the park the last time around, that I'm aware of, was for the archery competition. I sat and watched that for a little bit, but I was mostly just curious to see if Geena Davis was there. There's something cool when someone who's famous for something totally different just happens to have athletic skill at that level. She didn't qualify though, so I guess she doesn't.
Anyway...next Saturday morning I finish my crazy overnight working hours at 7 am and the race starts at 7:35, so I'll be sprinting out of the office and heading north and east to catch the speedy marathon boys just as they as they enter the park at about the mile and a half point. They'll be doing five loops of the park, so I should be able to get a glimpse of them flying by 10 times if I plan it right. It's really too good to be true...how often do you see a world class sporting event where you get to be just mere feet away from the athletes? And it's also incredibly rare in our sport to be able to see a race develop from so many points along the course without having to watch it on TV.
Another happy treat will be that the Minnesota contingent, including our own bloggerman Zeke, is making an appearance in the city for the occasion, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up with them during the day as they also scramble around the park watching the boys battle it out for the three Olympic team spots.
I haven't decided yet if I'm rooting for anyone in particular. I tend to go for the underdogs, so I'd be thrilled to see Khalid Khannouchi bounce back from all his injury troubles and show us what he's capable of. He's a local guy and about my age, so I'll definitely have an eye out for him. And I'm really hoping to see some of the other big names just jogging around the park this week. How 'bout this? If I recognize anyone, that'll be a sign that that's who I'm supposed to cheer for.
I'll plan on posting some photos of the race...it'll be good incentive for me to figure out how to do that on this new blog platform.
Comments (1)
She's alive!!! Heh. I was wondering what happened to you...
Thanks for the encouraging words. I guess for some reason I thought I could be the exception to the marathoning rule and somehow learn from everyone else and skip a few steps. I have come to realize that even if we're in sub-three shape it takes more than that. Sure, luck plays a part, but so does racing experience, particularly marathoning experience.
When I ran Columbus in 06 I was truly in 3:25 shape. I more or less ran the best I could. So, it is a bit of a stretch to think I could get myself in shape to run 1:00/mile faster in just one year. I got damn close, but not quite. Getting the fitness doesn't seem to be my problem (if you want to call it that). I feel like sub-3 fitness will be almost a sure thing for the spring, but whether I'll have the luck and enough experience to deal with crap along those 26 miles is not so certain. 1.5 years of marathoning is not a long time at all! I'm beginning to understand these things better. Ahh, it was so nice being naive and blindly hopeful :)
Anyway, I am so happy you're back out there running and blogging. Over the summer when the mileage felt oppressive I remembered something you wrote after one of your pre-sub-3 marathons--you said something like you wished you would have worked harder and then the next training cycle you did and it paid off for you. So, when I felt like shit, I thought about that and kept right on going.
Posted by Salty | October 31, 2007 2:47 PM
Posted on October 31, 2007 14:47