Olympics
I happened to catch the 1,500m run prelims last night, and that got me excited about watching some running here. The 800 was my race in both high school and college, so I definitely hope to catch that. But I think when it comes to drama and excitement, the 4x400 is the greatest event. That's the one that gets me pumped up, wanting to race myself. In college I did run that event, but always on the B team. Our A team won nationals one year, so I think cheering for them helped build that kind of anticipation for me. That plus the fact that I put way too much pressure on myself in the 800, while there was none in the 4x400--for an 800 runner, a single lap is just a sprint with no worries about strategy or pacing, both things that ended up twisting me up before my 800 races. My favorite experience from the 4x400, though, was one time that we had a 4xDan relay.
So I know nothing about anyone competing in it for any country, but I'm hoping to catch it regardless. I've been conditioned to see it as the final event of a meet, so after watching it, I'm sure a part of me will feel the Olympics must be over, whenever it ends up taking place.
I happened to catch the 1,500m run prelims last night, and that got me excited about watching some running here. The 800 was my race in both high school and college, so I definitely hope to catch that. But I think when it comes to drama and excitement, the 4x400 is the greatest event. That's the one that gets me pumped up, wanting to race myself. In college I did run that event, but always on the B team. Our A team won nationals one year, so I think cheering for them helped build that kind of anticipation for me. That plus the fact that I put way too much pressure on myself in the 800, while there was none in the 4x400--for an 800 runner, a single lap is just a sprint with no worries about strategy or pacing, both things that ended up twisting me up before my 800 races. My favorite experience from the 4x400, though, was one time that we had a 4xDan relay.
So I know nothing about anyone competing in it for any country, but I'm hoping to catch it regardless. I've been conditioned to see it as the final event of a meet, so after watching it, I'm sure a part of me will feel the Olympics must be over, whenever it ends up taking place.
Comments
I tolerate the 800 (before Athens at the US Trials one of my college teammates made the finals, and that was quite cool). :)
Our 800 squad was always on that edge between sprints and distance, so we never fully fit with either. Most of the time we trained with the sprinters, though--our coach was a former Olympian as well, for South Korea, but in the long jump and 100m.
I see (with a bit of cyber sleuthing) that you went to Northwestern? My wife grew up in NW Iowa, from about age 6 on, and her father after about 20 years at Dordt as professor and dean switched over to Northwestern a few years ago as vice-president and now provost there. Dutch bingo--it extends even beyond the Dutch circles...
Generally our 800 squads trained with distance, but at least for the first two years while I was at NW, distance was the red-headed stepchild of our track team. That began to change and I think we've had stronger 800 runners lately...though that probably means they're part of the sprinters.
Northwestern was a good place to go to school.
The benefit to training with the sprinters as an 800 runner was that I got running form pounded into me--my shoulders would still tend to tighten up too much at the end of a race, but otherwise we would get every bit of speed we could out of our bodies by being efficient. They'd trained with the distance squad until my first year, and they got far more miles that way...so endurance for a paltry two laps was never a problem for them. In my best year I trained with distance guys in the fall and put in hundreds of miles and then with the sprinters come January. I'm sure that's why it was my best year.