It's a little past two in the morning here in Eugene and we'll get caught up later today.
That's what you get when you stay until the end for the women's 10K final and meet friends to talk about the meet afterward. I was surprised that many people left before that event started. Still, it was a record attendance today at over 20,000 in the 90 degree temps. All results of the meet can be found on the Olympic Trials Website, but who would have thought that Amy (Yoder) Begley would have been able to pull off a third place AND and Olympic qualifying mark. (Kara Goucher and Yoder celebrate left). Astonishing perfomances today but many disappointments: Nicole Leach nicking the last hurdle to go down -- hard -- yet finishing the race in last place. She has so much class. Chanelle Price who just didn't have enough to keep it going during this long season while 10th grader Laura Roesler qualifies for the next round in the womens' 800.
On a personal note, great performances by Nicole Teter who advances in the women's 800, Oregonian linked qualifiers in the mens 800 Matt Scherer, Andrew Wheating who won his heat in 1:47.85, and local favourite Nick Symmonds. Galen Rupp, who has tried to combat rumours that he is injured, even in email rebuttals, sat, kicked and played to the crowd in winning his heat of the mens' 5000. I think they call it showboating. The locals loved it.
Lopez Lomong, the top qualifier in the mens' 800 in 1:46.96, ran almost effortlessly. Bernard Lagat was seemingly effortless to advance to the final in the mens 5k.
Walking down from the Trials rental house to the track and ran into Russell and his family from Newburgh, New York. His friend is from Connecticut. "Aren't you the Armory photographer," he yelled at me across the street. Well no, not officially but I had Jack Pfeifer in tow, the Collegiate Indoor meet director, and we found out that Russell's group are avid Armory groupies. Great to see some New Yorkers in Oregon! They were next hiking up to see Pre's Rock.
More stories coming from Jack Pfeifer on Armorytrack.com.
Story and photos by Kim Spir
