Ex-Thrower wrote:
That's a classic Pedro. Obviously from my name, I'm not a runner but an avid Track Fan. Just once (and I would pay good money to see this) I would love to see the pacemaker just go for it. I would love to see the lactic acid buildup, the proverbial brick wall and tons of weight strapped to the back look. Plus, it would put to rest that little belief in my mind that somewhere, somehow at sometime, some dude is just gonna take off and pull the race of his life out of his ass.
Tom Byers, 1981 Oslo 1500m.
He was on 3:32 pace, and had a huge lead. The rest of the field, Steve Ovett included, was hearing his splits and thought that they were their own, and thought that Byers was running ridiculously too fast. At around 1200m, Byers looks bck and saw how much distance he had on everyone else, so he went for it. By the time Ovett realized that Byers was on pace, he kicked hard but couldn't catch him.
It was the first loss for Ovett since the Olympics and snapped his streak.