Sunday, June 1, 2008

Tough to explain

Yesterday was so awesome. So many tremendous things happened. I'll share what I can with you. My Achilles has been bugging me for a week and now I can walk around painlessly. I haven't tried running or biking yet, but I'm pretty excited to try it out. That was pretty cool, but not amazing. Tamara and I were going to a track meet last night (obviously her idea) and we were walking along 125th in Harlem. We stopped and ate at our favorite west indian place, roti plus. That was also really rad, but not quite awesome. As we continued to walk along we saw this group of radical (not rad) preachers. As we walked by, one of them pointed to me and said "You die you *&%$@#!. You and you dog." I was so confused that I just kept on walking, not really sure what happened. Not awesome, but really strange. We were waiting for a bus to the track meet and when I got on I turned to my left and immediately knew I was standing next to greatness. I met Weldon Johnson who is the owner/operator of www.letsrun.com. We talked for a while and he was a really nice guy. I hope he gets over his injury. This site has taken a pretty decent chunk of my life. For endless hours of entertainment there is the messageboard. But it also provides comprehensive running information and news. That, was awesome.
Once we were at the meet our seats weren't quite what we expected but they were decent. We were in the middle of a bunch of Jamacains that will figure in later on. During the meet it started raining so we had to go under a bridge to wait. There was this truck there that was totally crushed with no apparent reason why. Turns out there were tarps on the bridge from construction and they had built up tons of water. One broke and all the water came down on this truck. There was a guy asleep in the truck when this happened. Fortunately his seat was reclined or this wouldn't have been so awesome.
The meet continued and there were some good races. Unfortunately the world record holder in the 110 Hurdles had to bow out because of an injury so were a bit bummed. He's the gold medal hope for China in the upcoming Olympics. 60,000 people went to a meet to watch him run and left afterwards. Nobody stayed for the remaining events. Anyway, we were a bit bummed. Tamara's been to a few of these meets with me and she's seen a few world records. There were also some other great performances but she kept on saying she wouldn't be satisfied without a world record. I didn't really hold out hope for one but I knew there would be some good races. Turns out the high school 4X1 and 4X4 were super exciting races between USA and Jamaica. Relays are always great. Finally the last event of the night rolled around, the 100m. It was Tyson Gay, the reigning Olympics and World Champion, an American, versus Usain Bolt, a young Jamaican 200 meter runner who recently ran his first professional 100m and ran the 3rd fastest time ever. It would be a great event. The gun went off and the Jamaican guy was pretty far ahead about half way and just held it. He was flying. It was awesome to see that speed. We looked at the scoreboard and he had run 9.72, a new World Record. The place went nuts. Everyone in our stands was on the phone with someone in Jamaica screaming into the phone. It was totally electric. He did a victory lap and he is so impressive. He's 6'6" and just a beast. Anyway, what an awesome ending to a night. I had seen some distance world records but the sprints are impressive from a different perspective.
On the way out I talked to a runner, Grant Robison, who I had met previously and am hoping can get back to his winning ways. He had an amazing summer a few years ago and hasn't lived up to that since. Hopefully in an Olympic year he can. Anyway, quite the awesome night.

5 comments:

Elder & Sister Ellis said...

My Doug says the Jamaicans are bred to run....some running away from things and those you met running for a goal. Either way, go Jamaica!

Tamara said...

Oh yeah, and when the guy said "and your dog" he was pointing right at me...for rude.

Anonymous said...

That's completely awesome! Dude I have always wanted to watch a world record made, and keep up on the recovery Doug!

KatieDid said...

I love track meets. Takes me back to your high school and BYU days.
New York is always a bit on the crazy side. I imagine you'll be bringing a bit of it with you to California.

Chelsea said...

Of course a bunch of awesome things happen, but the only thing that is Doug awesome is a running world record. Some things never change.