Day 3

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.