CBC Shout Out

I heard from my sister that CBC mentioned my blog during the race, and that's amazing.  Finally I believe more than just my mom reads my blog.  Thank you CBC, for making it all worth it!  But also thanks to everyone else who actually reads this, I appreciate the attention.  I know most of my entries aren't particularly interesting, but hopefully it keeps a couple more people in the loop of what I'm doing with my life lately!

Nationals

It's all done!  I finished 2nd, just barely, in a time of 3:45.something.  It took a hard kick down the home straight and a lean at the line, but it meant the silver instead of the bronze.  I'm really happy with the race and the result!  I haven't been especially pleased with my Nationals results for the past several years, from not making finals or not having my best race in the them; it's very satisfying to finally have a good showing!  And you can tell by all the exclamation marks that I really am very happy.  I felt good this morning during my run, and great this evening during warm-up.  I wasn't overly nervous, but it's definitely impossible to be without some butterflies in the stomach.  I knew my plan for the race, but you can never predict what will happen once the gun fires, and I sort of 'hope' things will play out in certain ways.  In the end everything worked out well, close to how I visualized in preparation, though I wasn't expecting the finish to be so tight for the second and third positions.

There's still a bit left in the season, and hopefully the best is still to come.  I'm racing in Halifax on tuesday and then off to Europe for three races after that.  It was a little discouraging earlier in the season when I wasn't running any fast times (especially the Commonwealth standard), but I've been having fun this past month and getting much more enjoyment out of the season.  With my 2nd place finish tonight, I'm excited to carry the momentum over to Europe and run some fast times before the end of the season!

http://www.athleticsvideos.com/Live_Results/2010/Senior_Championships/index-champ.htm

FINALS

It's always a relief to be done with the heats and be into the finals.  But I'm definitely no less nervous for the finals today.  I slept in till just after 10am, went for a short run with some activation drills, and then ate some breakfast (at the same restaurant I've been to now five consecutive days).  That'll be my only real meal until the after the race, with the exception of a protein drink several hours prior to the race.  The day is quickly passing but there's still too much time sitting in the hotel room watching bad daytime tv, like Billy The Exterminator.  I race at 5:05pm; if you're in BC you want to be watching CBC around 2pm to see my race live.


HEATS

 I finally get to race today!  I've been hanging out since Monday in Toronto and today I finally have the 1500m heats.  Of course I'm a little nervous, but mostly I'm anxious to get going.  I race around 3pm this afternoon in heat 1 (of 2).  I don't really have much to say outside of that, so check back soon for the results!

I advanced to the finals after winning the heat in a time of 3:48-49.  I felt good during the race, but it's nice to be able to shake out in the heats and be really ready for the finals.  The races tomorrow night I believe will be broadcasted on CBC live, so maybe look for that on your television.  My race is at 5:05pm (that's eastern time).  I'll be wearing the bright orange nike singlet.  After a burrito and booster juice, an ice bath and a massage, I have the rest of the night to relax!

Nationals'ing it up

The BC Champs were last weekend and I won the 1500m in a time of 3:42.  Unfortunately it's still not fast enough to qualify for Commonwealth, but I suppose there's still one more opportunity at Nationals.  I'm not really thinking about it anymore; I know how races at Nationals tend to go.  If, by chance, the finals are blazing fast and I hit the standard, I would be very excited, but I'm more concerned with racing now.  There's still big things to do in the season even without the Commonwealth Games!

The first thing of course is Nationals, happening this coming weekend.  I left yesterday morning for Toronto, and am now at a hotel downtown.  My heats are on Friday afternoon and the finals Saturday evening.  So for now I just relax and get ready to run hard.  There's going to be a lot of sitting in my hotel room, watching tv or movies on the computer, or reading, until race time.  There should be tv coverage of of the finals on Saturday, so look for me in the pack in a red and blue BC Athletics singlet.

After Nationals I'm flying out to Halifax to race the Aileen Meagher track meet.  Following a week in Halifax I'm Europe-bound and spending two weeks in Germany.  There'll be three races in Europe where I'll try to run some fast times before ending the season.  I've been saying for a while that I wasn't going to Europe this season, but during the westcoast series my group started talking about getting over for a bit of racing.  This was only about two weeks ago, making it fairly last minute.  I still don't know that I won't come back at the end of August with zero dollars in bank account, but I feel like I need to justify all the training done in Arizona by running at least one fast time this year.  

Check back soon to find out what happens at the Canadian Track & Field Championships.

http://www.athletics.ca/toronto2010/main.asp?id=461

Guys racing Girls

IAAF says "Castor Semenya May Compete"
http://www.iaaf.org/aboutiaaf/news/newsid=57301.html

Some pictures may say a thousand words, but the above only says one: dude. 

Last year at the World Champs in Berlin, Semenya easily snatched the 800m title.  Along with the win came controversy and a media explosion that rivaled Usain Bolt's world records at the Championship.  Watching the race (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpblUehi9Dk) and interviews (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-bqET22vEU), it's easy to understand why people were confused, intrigued, and in disbelief.  Semenya, at 18 years of age in Berlin, pulled away from her female competitors in the final stretch of the 800m final like an 18 year old boy might have done.  Her boyish mannerisms, such as the "gun show" pictured above, and deep voice did nothing to aid her case.  Immediately before the finals at Worlds, word was leaked that tests for Semenya showed testosterone levels that were three times that of regular female levels.  Then after the Worlds competition, news reports were saying that tests showed internal testes despite external female genitalia; in reality I don't think these reports were honest and based on actual testing.  The fire was fueled when news got out that the IAAF had ordered gender tests prior to the World Champs, to avoid a possible ethical disaster, but the South African athletics body lied about the completion of the tests. 

Now a year later, gender tests have proven Caster Semenya to be female and given the green light to her future racing career.  I wasn't aware until I started writing this blog entry, but Semenya begins her return to the international track scene tomorrow, July 15th, at a meet in Finland.  I'm curious to see how she runs, and I don't think I'm the only one.  And I think the IAAF knows this too.  If you were to ask me what I think of Usain Bolt, I would tell you that he is the best sprinter ever, and yes he's on drugs.  Truly, I believe he is, but it doesn't matter, because he's still the best sprinter ever.  And when he's racing at the championship meets, I watch, despite not normally caring about the sprints.  Usain Bolt makes track and field interesting at a time when the sport is a sinking ship.  So even if Bolt is shown to be on drugs, I don't believe anyone will take him down as long as he is still in his heyday.  And I believe the same goes for Caster Semenya; she is extremely good entertainment in track and field.  In not beating around the bush: I think Caster Semenya is different from the other girls she's racing, regardless of what a gender test says, and she's worth too much money for the IAAF to not let her run.  

Last year Semenya walked away with the World Champs gold medal in a time of 1:55.45.  The women's 800m world record is 1:53.28.  If Semenya follows a normal male progression for the age she's at, we could see a new world record by the end of this track season.  Female or not, I'm excited to watch her race.

UPDATE

Here are the results from Semenya's race in Finland.  Nothing too crazy. 

http://live.time4results.com/yu/2010/lappeenranta/13-1-r.html

West Coast Series

I raced again in Victoria a couple nights ago, doing another 1500m.  I won the race and the time was a season's best at 3:40.96  (http://www.trackclassic.com/results) It still wasn't the Commonwealth Games standard (3:39.3) but I'm getting closer.  I'm going to take another crack at the standard at the BC Championships in a week.  I hadn't planned on a big 1500m at provincials, but I had also hoped to already have the standard, so... My group is going to set up the race with a pacer and try to make the standard happen.  Overall it's been a great week of racing.  It feels good to get a couple wins and a good payout in prize money ($1700 for under 8-min of work!).  I shouldn't have any problem affording the rest of the summer till the end of the season, and am now looking at a potential trip to Europe to do some post-Nationals racing.  I wasn't planning on getting over to Europe this summer for running, but I'm quickly running out of races and would love to have at least one big breakthrough race this year!  As well, if I don't get the carding standard (3:38.1) then I'm going to be broke next year.  More so than this year.

BC Championships, possibly called the BC Jamboree or something stupid like that as of last year, will be next weekend, then a couple weeks later it's Nationals in Toronto, then the Aileen Meagher in Halifax on August 3rd.  After that... it all depends on how things go till then.

Photo credits: Ric Ernst, PNG (Vancouver Sun, http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Harry+Jerome+Track+Classic/3239042/story.html?cid=hot_photo)

Just a quick update for now!  I raced the 1500m at the Harry Jerome in Burnaby.  It went well, I won and the time wasn't too bad (3:42.4).  I ran much more tactically than I usually do, and instead of running hard from the gun I was patient in saving a kick.  Below is the race video and post-race interview with Flotrack. Finally got my Flotrack interview!  Tomorrow night I'm racing the 1500m again at the Victoria International Track Classic.  It's one last chance before Nationals to run a fast one!


Track and Field Videos on Flotrack



Track and Field Videos on Flotrack

http://www.harryjerome.com/results/