World Championships Day 8: A Cuban embargo lifted, an airborne Mac, and Syd the Kid

My last day of work work. No more 0430 wake up calls, no more early evenings for your intrepid blog author. 

Breakfast turned out okay. Tasty quiche. 

I did notice that, once again, chicken is on the noon menu, but thank goodness not of the lemon herb variety. 

Saw a great article about the gold and silver medalists in the 1976 Olympic 400m. I’ve worked many meets with Fred: heck, the man was my childhood hero, and I’m just thrilled to know him. One of my all time favorite moments on the track with him occurred at the 2012 Olympic Trials.

Great shot of that amazing Montreal 4x400m relay team, with Fred on the left. Look at the smiles! You’d be happy too, if you ran 2:56 almost 50 years ago….#Wheels…..and I always was in awe of bespectacled Bennie Brown’s shoulders. 

From the “completely unrelated to track but still awesome” category, here is a boss move if I ever saw one! Business travelers, take heed. 

Full work day, as usual, but enough time to ride my bike for 45 minutes or so along the River Trail. Then it’s off to play track once again!

While walking thru the stadium before the events begin, i see 1500m finalist Josh Thompson. I tell him that during Nationals, I was standing on the track in front of his family, and my ears are still ringing. He ran that race from the back, only moving up at the bell, and snuck into 3rd place at the wire. Very cool to see a guy with a child of his own work his way onto the Worlds team. I believe he got a personal best here as well. 

I asked if he knew what happened to Woody Kincaid, who fell in the 5000 semi and couldn’t quite make up the ground to qualify. Josh said that Woody was clipped from behind; his protest was disallowed because the judges said the fall was early and he had plenty of time to catch up. If that’s an accurate accounting, it’s a horribly unfair outcome. He was tripped by someone else, found himself injured and 30m behind the pack, and is denied the final because there were a lot of laps remaining?!?

Not cool. 

College classmates Chris and Duncan are in the house once more! They were here at the 2016 Trials, when Chris somehow recognized me from 30 years prior, and confirmed by digging thru the meet program to find the umpire listings. Duncan ran down from the bleachers and got this great shot of us. 

The men’s 400 was interesting: 4 runners abreast coming off the final turn, and Mike Norman squeezes out the victory. Shaunae Miller-Uibo has no such problems in the women’s final, as she put the race away handily. 

Then, the women’s 400m hurdles. At Nationals, Sydney set a world record with no competition, and we all wondered what she’d do with the best runners in the world pushing her at this meet. 

What she did is go lights out, putting away the race on the backstretch, and continuing her destructive assault on this poor defenseless event. Who breaks their own world record by 3/4 of a second? 

If she runs that time against the open 400m finalists (she hurdles while they don’t), she’s 7th in the final. That’s pure insanity. Then again, she’s from Central Jersey, so that explains much!

(I grew up in Central Jersey myself, so my own insanity is similarly explained away)

I was feeling great, full of energy after the meet, and one drink changed all that. It’s been a long 10 days for me! I was so tired that I left my phone in the car and missed a perfectly good photo op with Anna Cockrell and Raevyn Rogers. 

#RookieMistake

Day 7: An American Record, and Old Friends

Day 6: Cuff, Link, and Butkus

Day 5: Errant Photographers, and a kid who finally listened to Dad

Day 4: Don’t you hate it when your clothes don’t fit (and errant photographers)

Day 3: Marathons, Dance Cams, and not enough caffeine

Day 2: Celebrity Day at the Track

Day 1: Preview

World Championships Day 7: An American Record, and old friends

Every day begins with a 0530 conference call, as I’m working a full schedule during the meet. So no late nights for Nicky Boy. At least on weeknights, but Friday nite will be different, because i definitely need a night out. 

Here’s my early morning view, walking from the (air conditioned) apartment to the dorm. This would be more difficult if there wasn’t a 16 oz latté in my hand. 

Key words: ‘Air conditioned.’ Like most of the country, we’re pushing heat wave status, and the dorms are without cooling. Good investment on my part to find a place that lets me sleep comfortably. 

Problems with my work laptop at 0500, and the Help Desk isn’t open yet. So i use the on-call line for immediate support…..and I get voicemail. Grrrrrrrrrrr………..

Tonite is the men’s 200m final….sorry, I forgot the words ‘much anticipated,’ as this will be a shootout at the OK Corral (only because ‘15th and Agate’ doesn’t sound as sharp). Young lad Erriyon Knighton, all of 18 years old soaking wet, owns the 4th fastest time in history. He’s a quiet, non-demonstrative sort, just showing up with his lunch pail and punching the time clock. His main rival is Noah Lyles, a veteran at 25 years old, and quite a showboat. Lots of posturing, playing to the crowd, attention seeking. Lyles gets the crowd riled up, all right. 

At the qualifying meet for Worlds, Lyles snuck past Knighton at the wire and immediately started the ‘me, me, me’ garbage. And of course NBC (TV, not me) fed into that during the post-race interviews, so Knighton cut his discussion short and bailed, with steam coming out of his ears. 

I know ‘karma’ and ‘schadenfreude’ have two different meanings, but man oh man, i hope Erriyon destroys the field (and Lyles) tonite. 

Couple days ago, I talked about the Dance Cam. These two Detroit guys came back for Act 2!!

A few pix before the meet started…

Some nice kicks: 

This does not appear to be Dirk….

I seem to be fairly dehydrated today, not sure why. So, the remedy…

A few guys in the crowd ask me what my protein shake is….I say it’s a diet drink, low calorie. 

Stadium announcer Geoff Wightman is maybe the best known celebrity of the meet, having watched his son win a world championship while Dad had to maintain his professional/impartial composure. I’ll give him a pass on any outbursts he might have uttered. 

Electric day on the track: 

Men’s 5000m semi-final….Woody Kincaid takes an early tumble in front of me, and I believe someone else caused the fall. Very quickly, he’s 40m down on the leaders, and sporting a whole lot of road rash. The deal is that the first five in each semi to finish are automatically advanced to the final, and then the next five fastest overall are advanced as well. I’m hopeful that Woody will file an appeal, since the fall seemed to be not his fault….regardless, Woody gets mad and goes full burner to get one of the time qualifiers; the boy has a brisk final lap. He just misses the last qualifying slot, so hopefully the referee will slot him into the final. Rough day for him. 

Same in the women’s 800 heats. A runner from Australia is seemingly clipped from behind and goes down hard, a face first dive into the mondo track surface. She gets up VERY slow and wobbles across the finish line….if SHE isn’t advanced, there is no justice in the world. 

Women’s 200m final; Shericka Jackson runs possibly the fastest time ever in leading a Jamaican 1-2 finish, with a beaming Dina Asher-Smith grabbing the bronze. 

Now, the aforementioned mens’s 200…..I notice Erriyon is quietly focused, same for world #1 (and Cheesehead) Kenny Bednarek. Who is not quiet? Noah Lyles. He takes a run out or two and whips the crowd into a frenzy. I’m SMH. 

Then what happens? He destroys the turn, destroys the straight, and ties Michael Johnson’s American Record of 19.32 while not being challenged. After he stops, he stares at the timer with a look that says, ‘Seriously? You’re gonna call that a tie?’

And then the timer clicks backward a notch. 19.31!!!!! The track roars its approval, and Noah shreds his jersey in response. Meanwhile, I cannot confirm whether Michael Johnson filed an appeal. 

It ain’t bragging if you can back it up. 

Kenny and Erriyon finish off a 1-2-3 American sweep, with Erriyon becoming the youngest ever WC sprint medalist. Not bad, given that he graduated high school last month. 

And that’s an American clean sweep of both sprints, another first. Fast twitch fiber seems to be the rage again in the US. 

On my walk to the apartment after the meet, Track Town Pizza was the place to be….I never got the memo…

The Cadence Club is some ridiculously expensive marketing ploy….for a mere $2,000, get a finish line ticket and fancy food on the turf field. I notice the area is sparsely populated, go figure. 

You may know that I am a track history fanatic, have been since age 10. I grew up with names like Bones Dillard, Horace Ashenfelter, and Lee Evans imprinted in my brain. I’m always looking for links to the past. 

At every Hayward Field meet, I see chief clerk Wade Bell. He ran the 800 for Bill Bowerman in the late 60’s, and was also a sub-4 minute miler back in the era of sloppy cinder tracks. He later became Bowerman’s personal CPA…..Wade was an odds-on favorite for a podium finish at the Mexico City Olympics, but Montezuma’s Revenge took him down in the heats. 

Yesterday, as I’m walking out of the stadium, I see this scene, and I nearly cry. 

That’s Wade embracing 1968 200m bronze medalist John Carlos. Given their body language, that might have been the first time they’ve seen each other since the Mexico Games. 

Long story short: John and 200m winner Tommie Smith (also in attendance here) did the Black Power Salute on the podium and were thrown out of the Olympic Village. Somebody told them in advance, “Don’t do it, you won’t be able to get a job.” Teammate and WR holder Lee Evans said in response, “We can’t get a job now, so what’s the difference?”

The man who won silver in Mexico City, an Australian named Peter Norman, was 100% supportive of John and Tommy on the victory stand. That earned Peter his own banishment Down Under for years….at his funeral, John and Tommy were pallbearers, friends until the end. 

I’m glad I have this blog to remember days like today. 

Day 6: Cuff, Link, and Butkus

Day 5: Errant Photographers, and a kid who finally listened to Dad

Day 4: Don’t you hate it when your clothes don’t fit (and errant photographers)

Day 3: Marathons, Dance Cams, and not enough caffeine

Day 2: Celebrity Day at the Track

Day 1: Preview

World Championships Day 5: Errant photographers, and a kid who finally listened to Dad

Lots of discussion about the cameraman who wandered onto the track last night during the steeple chase final. 

There was an official at the finish line who was screaming at the guy to move, but the cameraman had earphones on and couldn’t hear anything except his producer back in the TV trailer. The producer should have told him that a race was in progress and to stay off the track. Since that didn’t happen, hopefully the producer recognized the situation and told the cameraman to freeze in place. The guy was not moving as the pack went around him, because if he was, someone it would’ve been hit by a 65 pound camera. That’s usually not what you want to have happen in the world championship final.

This morning, an official who is not working the meet ripped us ‘for letting this happen.’ 

I probably didn’t need extra caffeine today, but…I (somehow) calmly explained that World Athletics has kept us off the track to an unprecedented degree. They want very few bodies in sight, especially on the infield, and the marshals are being kept under the stands. None of us like it, but it’s not our call. Then this person ripped us for Devon Allen’s DQ with the false start. Again, the starting line referee, an ITO (International Technical Official) made the call based of the exact wording of the rule. No leeway or interpretation. 

Having said that: it’s an overly punitive rule that pushes spectators away. Not what we want. 

Oh, and check out the Kenyan hidden behind the tall guy in red. That face is saying, “DUDE!!!! GET OFF THE TRACK!!” And in Swahili, no less…

It’s hard to screw up breakfast, and today the bacon was nice and crispy. 

(Sorry, that’s not jámon, as my friend Liz in Spain would prefer. She’s probably offended).

A little bike ride on Excalibur; bought this beast in 1990 and she’s still kickin’ it. A nice paint job helps. 

A stop at South Eugene High School; this is the unofficial practice track for big meets. One relay team is practicing handoffs, and a bunch of race walkers are doing laps as well. 

Meanwhile, the lazy Americans are standing around doing nothing. Donovan Brazier on the left, Craig Engels on the right. I think they were secretly checking out my posh bike. 

A little pad thai always sticks to the ribs. 

To the track, and the men’s 1500m final…

Alex, I’ll take ‘Who the Hell is Jake Wightman’ for $1000. 

Seriously. I had never heard of the guy. Smart money was on Little Brigtsen (not to be confused with his older brothers MiddleBrigtsen and ElderBrigtsen). Jakob is the reigning Olympic Champion and just a robot out there, but the Brit (not the Brigt) laid the wood to him with 300 to go and somehow held him off. 

The coolest part of this story? Jake’s dad WAS THE STADIUM ANNOUNCER FOR THIS RACE!!! I don’t know how Poppy held his composure. As Jake crossed, the announcer’s face flashed onto the jumbotron; as the masses wondered why, Dad said, “THAT’S MY SON!” 

First Brit to win a global 1500m title since 1984. The Olympic victor that year was Sebastian Coe, now the President of World Athletics, and in attendance at Eugene. 

Very cool moment. 

Day 4: Don’t you hate it when your clothes don’t fit (and errant photographers)

Day 3: Marathons, Dance Cams, and not enough caffeine

Day 2: Celebrity Day at the Track

Day 1: Preview

Who's that guy on the mike??

So there's Awesome Molly, who runs events in town...I volunteer a lot for her stuff, 'cause it's fun and she pays well.

For example, she gave me this little gift in lieu of my requested box lunch...

                                          


Anyhow....USA National Duathlon Championships were coming to town, and the organizers wanted a second person to help with the announcing chores. They asked the local tourism board, who promptly asked Molly...

who promptly volunteered me, saying I'm the right person for the job.

uh, thanks...except I've never done any race announcing.

Is this what it feels like to lie on a resume? Except it was her lie, not mine!

I was somewhat apprehensive, but they had me at "We'll give you a shirt, food, and $200."  Besides, I needed to push my limits a bit. And they told me I'd simply have to read the names of the finishers, and maybe some sponsor plugs. I can do that.

They didn't need me there until 0700 on Saturday, and the venue was less than a mile from my house, so I took my time getting ready. Of course, I heard the first public address announcements starting at 0530; no doubt my sleeping neighbors heard that as well!!

Typical Oregon forecast: 38F in the morning and climbing to 80F. One of the staffers at the announcer's booth was shivering while dressed for the warmer temps, so I gave her my fleece: i had 3-4 layers on and was already warmed up.

The road crew did a great job with setup:

Lots of expensive bikes in the transition zone:

The head announcer is a great guy named Tim, very well organized. He gives me the drill...and part of my job now includes working the sound board!

See that iPod on the right? Yes, it's an iPod Classic, probably 10 years old. Anyway, Tim has lots of race playlists ready to go. While he gave instructions to the racers on the starting line, I cued up the tunes, then let 'er rip two minutes before the gun.

My apprentice gear...

Announcer Tim is perfect for the job; huge enthusiasm, great radio voice, and he knows all the top racers by sight...he sees many of them on a regular basis around the world. And he looks just like Frank Underwood....or Kevin Spacey! Tim also has the energy of basketball announcer Dick Vitale. 

He walks down to the starting line about 100 yards away and gets the waves moving. I'm sitting next to the timing guy, who starts to look confused. And i realized what happened: Tim started one wave 5 minutes early....the six waves all had varying intervals between their starts: 10 minutes, 15, 10, 10, 15. The timing guy had to do some quick reprogramming, but all was right with the world in short order. 

The race format is 10k run, 40k bike, 5k run. Leg-sapping hills on all segments, too. These folks are going to be hurting...but the race leader does the first hilly 10k in 35 minutes; he's going to pay for that later. 

Sure enough, he fades back into the field, while local favorite Matt Lieto crushes the bike and cruises thru the final run portion. 

Oh, the announcing....I thought i was simply there to read off the prompter. Uh uh...after talking with the lead announcer before things got going, he realized that i could converse without tripping over my tongue, i have a pretty deep knowledge of sports information, and I'm some kind of an athlete myself. So he engages me in conversation over the open mikes...."So Nick, it looks like our racers will have their work cut out for them today. What do you think?"

Pause. Seemed like hours, but it was only a couple seconds. Ok, I'll dive in. Pretty soon, I'm talking about the first Ironman Triathlon back in 1978 and the possibility that Bend resident Jesse Thomas will shortly become the first American winner in Hawaii since Tim DeBoom fifteen years ago. 

I love this!   NBC, the color man...

After Lieto wins and regains his senses, I see him walking behind our platform. I say to Tim that 'we' should interview him. 'We' meaning Tim....no, Tim said, "Great idea! Go do it."  So there I am, the neophyte, interviewing a newly crowned national champion for all the world to hear. 

Or at least the ones within audible distance. 

A couple of Molly's co-workers come walking up. They wanted to see what the commotion was about...and they wanted to know what idiot woke them up at 0530 with his microphone....nope, wasn't me. And yes, the race organizers had a permit!

As the racers finish, we read their names off the laptop: 

Announcer #1: "Spike Johnson, a Bend cardiologist!"

Announcer #2: (loud whisper) "That's MY cardiologist!"

(I was announcer #2)

Hard race with the hills and wind. Winner Lieto said that he hid in the trees about a half mile from the finish and tried to relieve his knotted hamstrings. Fortunately, he had a lead of several minutes. 

Did i mention the swirling winds? The entire finish line gantry came crashing down at the end of the second race, and the first couple of finishers had to cross the line and shimmy their way through the fence. 

Didn't get a real-time picture of the damage, but all this stuff was a pile of rubble

At packet pickup the day before, one of the athletes posted disdain for his fellow competitors who picked up their race numbers while decked out in tri gear, Ironman tattoos, even aero helmets! Then I noticed that the same guy posted paragraphs about his racing experience for the announcers to read at the finish line. Hmmmm...

Announcer Tim's wife ran track at the University of Oregon, and both of them will be going to the Olympic Trials there in a week. I hope we can get together for dinner!

Highlight of the day: Sister Madonna Buder of Spokane, 86 years young, finishing yet another race. She's a world record holder: the oldest person ever to finish a full-distance Ironman Triathlon. She been quoted as saying, "I train religiously."   Oooof!

Very neat day. 9 hours without sitting down, so i decided to skip my run. 

Good call. 

2014 Pole Pedal Paddle

Seems like last year we had months to prepare for the PPP; this time, it was about two weeks. Fortunately, we’ve got a good template to follow: take what we did last year, then wash/rinse/repeat.

I decided not to mark the run course on Friday night. I’d still have to verify everything on race morning, and I didn’t want the local hooligans having a chance to mess things up. So I had an extra glass of wine and went to bed early.

Race day, around 0530; I hope Molly’s prediction of 73 degrees comes to pass, because it is positively frigid right now. But it sure is pretty in Farewell Bend Park; clear, crisp, and oh so quiet. All that will change shortly.

  

 The Aid Station food delivery arrives, and what do I see? The entire Evans family wearing Vibrams on their feet. First big smile of the day!

It didn’t take long for me to mark the course (or to experience the first injury of the day). Evidently, I’ve forgotten what every kid knows: be careful when using chalk on pavement.

Is there anything better than coming across a pristine PortaJohn and being the first to use it?

One of my run course volunteers, brand new to town, just finished a night shift and came straight out to the race. Volunteers are awesome!

While riding the course on my bike and making sure things are set, I come across this couple; Austin and Renee. They run an athlete recovery lounge in town; I might need to go there later. And Renee is a professional runner. Later, I see her absolutely destroying the course with something like a 5:15 second mile. Serious wheels!

I really don’t know what to say about this guy

 

Under the Healy Bridge with a mile to go in the run, there’s a string quartet playing Irish folk music! I swear, Bend is the best place in the world to live.

Here’s German guy Rolf: two years ago, he was starting the run long after course marshals told us the race was over. See, Rolf had finished the bike leg, then ducked into a pub to see the results of the European soccer championship. When the match went into extended overtime, he stayed at the bar while consuming multiple beverages. Then he finished the race in dead last, but with a big smile on his face.

Best dressed support staff EVER.

 

A fairly straightforward day, as evidenced by my car at 3pm. Contents include extra lunches and t-shirts for volunteers, course signs, orange duct tape, chalk, flour course marking, emergency phone numbers, and who knows what else.

 

Everything a good Sherpa needs!

Leadman Epic 250k

There is insanity, and then there is this...

 

 5k swim, 138 mile bike, 13.6 mile run. Longer than an Ironman, and the bike course includes two excursions over Mt. Bachelor.

And I created my own version of a triathlon: swim, wedding, run. I'll explain later...

0330 wakeup. The lake is 50 miles outside of town, and there's limited parking, so everyone is shuttled there. One coach bus, and lots of school buses. The fancy ride for the pros, with the rest of us in the yellow boxcars? Screw that; I'm riding in comfort.

Some delays in transporting everyone to the lake 50 miles away; nothing terminal. Getting to the bus early always helps.

Big kudos to the sponsors:

That's 'Deschutes Brewery." Gotta give some love to the beer supplier...

I'm one of a small handful in sleeveless wetsuits. All these hardcore athletes in full suits are shivering in the water; not me. Those suckers don't have my body fat to keep them warm.

There's the gun. Stay smooth, relaxed, unhurried.

After one lap, we get out of the water and run past the aid station. The race organizers want a quick look to make sure we're coherent before plunging back in.

Soon enough, it's a good kick for the last 500 yards and it's over. I find my wingman and off he cycles.

A little souvenier from the lake...
 

Forgot to mention; I'm doing the race as a relay, with the swim and run legs. But one of these things is not like the other:

I'm actually on two teams; swimming for one, and running for another. Which means I get two sets of gear bags from the race organizer.

Just call me Swag Whore.

I ask someone for the time post-swim. Then I shake my head; the course must be short. And it is, by about 600m. But the extrapolated time is 1:28, or 18 minutes faster than my only other 5k swim. Cool.

I'm beginning to like this long-distance swimming. But Diana Nyad doesn't need to worry about me.

Back on the bus to go home. I tried to nap but to no avail. At least I put some good calories down.

While my cyclist was suffering o'er the mountain passes, I went to the wedding. Very cool venue; up against the lava flow just south of town.

Proper wedding attire?

Back to the race: cyclist Dan on team #1 comes screaming in. Monster ride, even with a killer headwind on the long stretches heading up to the mountain. He pulled a 7:15 for 138 windy, hilly miles! Our anchor man takes off, and he's a solid runner. We're gonna break 11 hrs and get the coveted belt buckle.

Bike to Run transition
 

Cyclist #2 comes in and I'm back on the course. If I can get a 1:50 following a 5k swim, I might have a shot at getting my Boston qual time at the Portland Marathon in 2 weeks.

But the first miles are uphill, and I went out too fast. I'm hurting out there, and my pace shows it. I recalibrate my marathon goal and stop looking at my watch. Just do what you can, guy. I try to enjoy the rest, even though I'm maxed out.

Nice finish. After I'm done dry heaving, I see the splits.

Pause.

That can't be right.

1:48? I was on 8:30 pace early on, and I finished at about 7:50 or so?

I'm digging this. Serious negative split! I knew I was rolling while coming back into town, but jeez...

Big shout-out to The Fat Cyclist: Team Fatty crunched a 2nd place in the relay division, with the man himself pulling a low 6-hr split on those hellacious roads. He gave away free t-shirts to anyone beating his time, and there weren't many recipients. In case you don't know, Fatty is consistently voted as having the best endurance blog online. Great to meet you, FC!!

Great food at the finish. I think the trail mix with M&M's went down the best.

Long day. Good day.