Forward

Yeah, I'm over it.  Shit happens.

Was thinking about racing at Vandy's first indoor meet on 12/3,  just a little over 2 weeks away... but I probably shouldn't.   I thought I'd take 15 days off from the track, but I probably need more.  Alan T. says, "you need more than 15 days, gear up for January."  Probably good advice since it's been 10 days and my feet still hurt in the morning, however, the improvement is noticeable.

I know my body and I know I was really in shape by the time the 400m final went down in Perth.  I kind of hate to lose this level of fitness as I am still fairly light.  But, I've got a bad chest/sinus cold right now.   The only thing I've done physical is bike up the mountain on Monday which was a killer workout.  I think it made my cold worse.  It's bad but at least there is no fever.

400m fitness is hard fought and goes away quickly, at least for me.  For every week of non activity, it takes almost 2 weeks to return.  So, if I take 3 weeks off, it could take as long as 6 weeks of training to get it back.

So, WTF happened?
After running less than great 200s - all over 25, I felt maybe I wasn't aggressive enough in the top half of the races.  Even in the 200m final, I ran 25.04 and was closing on the field at the end, maybe a tad bit left.  So, I planned to take a gamble and go out hard in the 400m final.  I thought 55.5 could win it.  I also said to myself to be prepared to lean hard if it's close.

I think I hit my 300m split just a tad too fast, about 39.5.  Running in lane 5, I paced just a tad ahead of Trevor in lane 6.  I beat him and everyone else around the final turn.  Wow, would I like to live over that last 3 seconds of the race, but I can't.  Leading with just 20m to go to a World Championship, I started rigging, Corey and Trevor began to pass me.  I wasn't aware of where the others were... it seemed like 'everyone was passing me'  at that moment.  It was a terrible and helpless feeling, but I thought I might be able to pick one of them off with a hard lean so, 10m out I started to gather myself for a lean...  but that was a mistake.  I stumbled and fell 2.5m in front of the line, sliding 2m and coming to rest with my face just inches from the finish.  Nightmare scenario.  I thought I was closer to the line than I actually was and I thought I had fallen over the line at first, but no.  If I just relaxed, I could have medaled easily, and run a respectable mid 55's time.   I was 2 steps ahead of 4th place Richard and he ran 55.8.   Richard said, if I had fallen a half step later, I would have slid across the line in third.  It truly was a matter of inches.  I was happy to see Corey edge Trevor, earning the Gold for the USA.   It was his fastest race in 3 yrs and he executed perfectly.  He ran a great race, 55.28.
Here a photo of us with 20m to go, and the fall...

Rigging up in the last 10m is ok because one's momentum can still bring it across the line.  In the last 20m is a little harder to manage.  I could have run a smarter and bit more conservative race plan, but I went for it and lost.  The nature of the sport.  This was a tough one though, traveling 25,000 miles round trip to come up literally inches short of a medal and a step from a world title.  I'm ok with it now, can even laugh about it, but it will haunt me for years.  Still, 10 days after, I have scabs on my hands and skin peeling from my shoulder.  

Yes, I think it could have been worse.  It's not like I didn't run fast.  I met many people who traveled from far corners of the world to be eliminated in the semis and prelims.  

I've made my bookings for Albuquerque and Daegu.  I need to focus on that and heel up these hurting feet.   I'll have many more photos to share from Perth during this down time.

Running down into the M50 age group, we won Gold with a smokin ' 4x100m relay, 45.15, just .6 off the World Record... 2 full seconds faster than our Gold medal M55 4x100m in France.  More about that and some inspirational performances in Perth in my next post.