Highs and Lows from the Olympics

There were so many great moments in the 2008 Olympic meet, and, particularly for USA Track and Field, there were several, well, not so great moments. Here are just a few...

Highs:
Shalane Flanagan's bronze medal performance in the 10,000m. From the gutsy way that she ran to the shots of her mother cheering wildly in the stands as she went from a solid fifth, to fourth, and finally overtaking the third place runner to win the bronze; to her priceless reaction as she finished ("Did I get third?") and the clear emotion on her face as she realized she had medaled and draped herself in the US flag. One of my favorite moments of the Games.

The US Men and Women taking gold in the 4 x 400 relays. It was a sigh of relief after an otherwise fairly dismal meet.

Usain Bolt. I didn't care for his over-the-top reactions to his wins, but man, he's fun to watch run.

Ato Bolden asserted himself as a very good track announcer. I hope he continues to be in the booth going forward--NBC's usual T&F announcers leave a little to be desired, to say the least.

The Kenyans. Bekele ran one of the all time great 5000m, and Wanjiru obliterated the Olympic marathon record on a hot, humid, smoggy day. The marathon in particular was just unreal.

Lows:
The US sprinters. Aside from the US sweep in the Men's 400, they were, for the most part, nowhere to be seen. [Edit--we did go silver/bronze in the Men's 200--I guess I was just too distracted by the batons hitting the ground in the 4x100 to remember that]. Dropping the baton in both 4x100 relays has to be a new low.

Bernard Lagat. Running on an injured Achilles, he failed to qualify for the 1500 final and finished a fading 9th in the 5,000. Tough meet for him.

Deena's broken foot. I think I had "sympathy pains" here in Houston when she went down. Man, I hated to see that--she's a favorite of mine.

Lolo Jones/Sanya Richards/US Men's Shotputters. Disappointing results from all.


What did I leave out?

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11 miler yesterday out in the humid. It went ok, but I drank Gatorade to refuel rather than my usual water/Gu, and it didn't sit well for a while. And, well, it was humid. Other than that, though, it went reasonably well. I'm off to do an easy
three or four mile recovery. Swim tomorrow--the water should feel good.

Carpe viam!