Well it was finals day for me at the Senior Nationals. Partly cloudy, breezy and a in the low 70's. Beautiful day to race. The wind was shifting and it could be blowing down the finishing straight or into turn 4, either direction was a problem for very fast times. As you can see in the picture I came in 5 th place at 62.13 seconds. I picked up 2 full seconds from the prelim yesterday. I was 1.4 seconds from getting a medal.
I started in lane 8, since I was the slowest qualifier. I actually wanted an outside lane so I could run my pace and nor worry about the other competitors--you tend to start racing too early and kill your finish. I got a good start and was in groove so to speak. I did pick up my pace from yesterday. Around 150 meters the winner passed me and I did pace with him down the backstraight. I was still in good shape and started to accelerate a little into the turn and was in third as the stagger was finished down the final straight. But at that point, I could feel the left leg getting that feeling of failure. At that point I backed down just a little and faded to fourth at 50 to go. I cruised on in fifth and that all I had. I prevented the big tie up and still ran 2 full seconds faster from the day earlier. I was quite happy with that result.
The picture is of the 400 m finals contestants as we accepted medals for 1 to 3 and ribbons for the remainder. I am third from the right. I also ran in a 4 x 100 relay and our team did a 55.39 and finished 5 th. The winners ran a 47.38!!!!! Ok, they even had Oscar Peyton run for them--his is incredible. It was my relay race since May 1975 at the Ohio State Finals in the mile relay. I lead off as usual. It was a lot of fun to team with three complete strangers, but we enjoyed it immensely.
More later, including pictures. Linda and I are going to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. We will have Steelers gear on.
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