2007 Prefontaine Meet

Hey everyone,

I am so happy to share with you my first experience at the Prefontaine Classic Meet. I was able to see why many athletes enjoy their experience while at PRE and love coming back to Eugene, Oregon. The people were all very supportive, and the city was very inviting. For them track and field is like football. They breathe, eat and sleep track and field. To my surprise many of the fans knew a lot about the competitors and were eager to cheer everyone on. The entire atmosphere was a definite booster and helped me gear up for my race.

Sometimes you just have that feeling of being ready! On this day I was excited and just ready to run. I knew my competitors in the race and was very happy to get lane 6. The nervous jitters began as I got into the blocks, but I immediately changed that into positive energy that I could use during the race. In this race I wanted to run my race and not let my competitors pull to far away during the first part. As the gun went off....bang.....we were all out of the blocks. My competitors on the inside actually made up the stagger, but again I reminded myself to stay calm and relaxed. One thing I did not want to do is stress at the fact that they were ahead. I mentally knew that I would be O.K., as long as I stuck to my original plan.

Coming into the last 100 meters, I felt that I needed to push it home and give it all that I had. I actually was in fifth place coming into the straight, and realized that I would not be satisfied if I didn't dig hard! Somewhere, somehow I got a surge and was proud to cross the line in 50.95 seconds, placing second to the number one ranked 400 meter runner in the world. At first I didn't realize the time when I saw it. It took me several minutes to realize that I had just broke 51 seconds. This is something that I have been working hard to do and finally it came through.

After the race, the lactic acid hit my legs tremendously, I was hurting and happy at the same time. I said to myself...this is what it feels like to run 50 point. Sometimes your body will hurt and in training you still have to fight through it. I am extremely excited about the upcoming National Meet. I will continue to work hard in practice and trust that the Lord will allow great things to happen.

He definitely helped me at Pre and I am thankful for that......