DEBBIE DOWNER

Let’s just say I’m not a big fan of having a 13-hour difference between here and Beijing. I basically can’t look at any website during the day without seeing some result that I was hoping to see on TV. And NBC’s coverage of track and field has been hit or miss. I was pissed when I found out the men’s 1500 meter results online, but since I didn’t stay up till 2 AM to watch NBC’s coverage, I’m glad I was able to at least read about the results. I still haven’t seen the race.

I will give NBC credit for their women’s marathon and men’s 10K coverage. Hopefully their men’s marathon coverage will be just as good. Having Ed Eyestone and Craig Masback in the booth seemed to work out pretty well for them.

Listening to a morning radio show the other day one of the hosts was talking about Usain Bolt and mentioned something like, “Well, they don’t have professional track.” I just shook my head. Maybe they don’t have a league in the U.S., but as someone pointed out, Asafa Powell’s $100K appearance sounds “professional” to me.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Bolt is pretty amazing. As Ato Boldon said, “The record I thought would be around till I die has just been broken.” I mean Michael Johnson basically broke a 17-year old world record by four-tenths of a second - that's huge over 200m. But then I thought about what Johnson said. That record shouldn’t have lasted 17 years to begin with. During that time it should have gradually come down. People are just now starting to run in that range. Even with all that said, Bolt is pretty quick. I wonder what he could do in the long jump.

Thanks to Charlie for pointing out this ESPN article on Katie McGregor.

Since I haven’t posted in 2 days, here’s an update on my training. Monday night I added another easy 5 mile run. Tuesday morning I ran 6 miles that included 5 times up the Bush Lake Road hill with a stride every time I reached the bottom. Yesterday I ran an easy 5 miles in the morning and then last night I ran a 10 mile progression run, dropping down to 6:30 for the last 2 miles.

Quote of the day;

“I tried to put a happy face on it. You don't want to be Debbie Downer and feel sorry for yourself. It's not like I'm the only person to finish fourth.” – Katie McGregor