World Championships Day 3: Marathons, Dance Cams, and Not Enough Caffeine

Ugh.  

Asleep at 10:15 last night, alarm at 3 AM this morning for the marathon. At least we were told that there will be coffee and pastries over at the football stadium where we have our briefing. 

I’m not very photogenic at this hour.

Ride my bike over, everyone is grumpy, and no coffee to be had. So much for promises!

The lot of us are bleary eyed, trying to focus, when my favorite clerk jumps in. Clerks check all the athletes before each race, making sure of all the administrative details, including shoes. Dan the Man says, all too loudly, “I guess we’re not checking spike length today?”

Not for an all-asphalt race, we’re not! I swear, he’s the funniest man in the bidness. 

At the pre-race briefing, the race organizer tells us that “the mass run will start right after the elites.“ I don’t know what that means: is he suggesting there’s a second race today? 

That’s exactly it. There is a 5km fun run with 1000 runners that is going to occur on the exact same course and simultaneously with the world championship. The elite runners will do three laps of this course, and the hobby runners will do a much shorter version, but there is a chance that elite runners will be coming up to the back of the pack near the finish line. It’s incomprehensible that an amateur race will be conducted at the same time as a world championship on the same course. 

This could be a total mess. 

Several years back, I was driving a pace car in a local bicycle race that had five laps for the men and three laps for the women, with each lap being around 15 miles. The men’s race started first, and the women were to start after the men pass the starting line for their second lap. Trouble is, the men passed, and the women’s race didn’t start right away. I was yelling at the head officials “we have to go, we have to go,” because men typically ride around 5 miles an hour faster than the women , and if you do the math we would have a major convergence at the end of both races. And that’s exactly what happened; when the women were finishing up their race the men rode up on them, and the last half mile was complete chaos with both men and women sprinting for the finish line at the same time. Just an absolute mess. I can see something similar happening this morning. Running multiple races simultaneously on the same course is a disaster waiting to happen, and I just can’t believe they’re running a world championship this way.

At the football stadium for our pre-race briefing, we find out that we will be driven to our locations by none other than former world-class miler (now chauffeur) Ben Blankenship. 

Dispatched from the stadium to Water Station 2, I still have an hour before the race starts and I’m sorely tempted to hit the mess hall right now. Problem is, dining opens at 6 and the race starts at 6:15, though i do have my bicycle. As much as my stomach is rumbling right now, there is work to be done. So I go to Dutch Brothers for a quick java hit, and I’ll find the dining hall right after the race.

There is hope for survival…

Each team has their own table for drinks. 

In the Tokyo Olympic marathon, there was a table set up with runners’ drinks from multiple countries. And one runner who was having a bad day decided to simply wipe out the entire table by knocking all the drinks and bottles down. Somehow the guy was not disqualified; now there’s an individual table for every team. 

Alex, I’ll take “This is why we can’t have nice things” for $1000. 

Team Mongolia has a pretty good turnout. 

Team Uganda might be the best dressed out here. Definitely the most colorful!

USA! USA!

Poor security guy has been at this post since 10pm. Gotta keep interlopers away at all hours! 

Here they come! Time to put my camera away.

A message on the radio that Nilsson of Sweden has dropped out of the marathon and is heading back to his AirBnB. My response: “since he has nothing better to do now, tell him we need hot coffee at Aid Station #2.”

Last night’s US sweep of the men’s 100m…2 hundredths of a second from 1st to 3rd. Winner Kerley is the tallest of the three, and his altitude helped in the lean. 

I TOLD you it was a close race!

The men’s marathon was on a rough 2:13-2:15 pace early on. Then someone dropped a ridiculous 14:05 split for 5k, last half in 1:01, and the winner finished in 2:05. Given that every marathon I’ve run has been at one pace until I vapor lock, it’s stunning to see such an acceleration late in the race. These boys got some game!!

Lots of robotic camera thingys around here. 

Slava Ukraini!

Nice view before the events start.

New Hayward Field introduces the Dance Cam….the video team look for people who want to shake their money maker, and many join in. Nice touch! Maybe someday we’ll be known for this, like the red shirt boy vs the usher at this Pistons game. 

Or this Astros Security Guard

Or THIS Astros Security Guard

Did I mention the lousy food in the dorm? This view from the stadium brightens my day bunches. Hawaiian Grill and Gourmet BBQ? Yes, Please!!!

The men’s 10k turned into a serious drag race. All three Americans were in it late, with the crowd ripping the ‘USA, USA’ chant for all to hear. In the end, a 53 final lap wins it for Uganda, with American Grant Fisher finishing inches off the medal stand in a very brave run. 

On the way out, I see this display from the winner’s countryfolk. But they must be in distress, because that’s what it means when the flag is flown upside down!

Meant to get a short nap in between sessions, but I’m too wired after all the caffeine. Oh well. 

The evening was….interesting. Josh Thompson, that crafty sumbitch, runs another 1500 from the back and saved enough to qualify for the final. He did the same thing at Nationals 2 weeks ago. Johnny Gregorek gets swallowed up in a finish line scrum, missing the automatic qualifier in the slower heat. Damned shame. 

Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs put on yet another show, putting the shot into the stratosphere. Hayward Field loves them. 

And the 110HH final. Two false starts, including hometown hero Devon Allen. There is a physiological reflex threshold, and a safety margin on top of that. He is 0.001 too fast, so he goes home. Man, that was one angry crowd…and one angry hurdler. 

I’ll say it again; penalize 0.1 second for 110m and shorter distances, then let them run. The whole town came out to see him on his home track. Worst rule in the sport; in no others do you get DQ’d for an honest mistake, much less a reflexive one…..ok, there IS one sport: drag racing. But if that third-tier sport is what we’re comparing ourselves to, we might as well stay home. I had that exact conversation with a very influential person in track and field, and he took the side of drag racing. Still SMH over his lack of support. 

Jamaica sweeps the women’s 100m, the safest bet of the whole meet (besides betting whether Nick will procure some awesome international swag before it’s all over). 

Yikes. Just yikes. Not the way we want the day to end. 

Women’s marathon in the morning. 

Day 2

Day 1