So.....One can type the answer, now almost 30 years later, but would have told you in person (and no mask) 3-4 years after the event in person.
-Prepared mentally for a fast race
why? Heats and Semi finals were fast... ran easy 3:38.01 on Monday and easy 3:35.55 Semi final.
Kibet had won the Oslo mile, and there were three Kenyans in the race
If they were really 'working' together as some of the previous posts suggest, then why didn't they go to the front and pace each other. Did any of these posters ever try to get around David Kibet running :57 pace? Guy was 6 feet + tall, all legs, and you had to slow up and go around. Chesire was a man of his own cloth. Not sure he and the other two roomed together on the Circuit.
-I was very fit. Proof: Next races were 3:32.94, 3:52.69 mile; 3:33.04; 3:36.28-1st w/ a 40.8 last 300m; 4:00 at the Grand Prix final going through 3/4 mile in 3:05.3; and 2 days later in Rieti running 3:33.59.
-My two coaches had asked me to take time to visualize winning the race. Not placing, but winning. So they were on the same page, and knew what the goal 'should' be
As of today, what I can remember, is all of us winding it up down the back stretch. People going by on the outside with 200m/180m to go. Coming off the final turn, 100m to go, and sorry to type this, saying 'what's the point.' Kick and get 1 guy? The race was lost. Run hard in, but not 'go to your guns' as my coach Mike Durkin would say, or the all out gear. Defeat began before the finish line. Not because I was tired, but 32 year old mind was unwilling to get one guy. Yet, I can even remember finishing and noting the Morceli had run maybe the worst race of his life, right ahead of me... and thinking, you could have caught him and why didn't you?
In my mind, if I could rerun the race, run the race my coaches had trained me for - if it is fast (again, what I had mentally prepared for), follow and be in position to strike for a medal with 200m to go (note, 'strike for a medal,' and not the "win" as coaches had asked to visualize) And if I would have prepared correctly for a slow, 1980 Games or 1988 Games race, then take the lead at 800m. Yes, I would have finished 6th or further down the ladder - but at least when you look in the mirror back in the Olympic Village, and ask out loud: "Did run the best of the talents that have been given to you?" you can say an affirmative "Yes."
When going into a race in Zurich or Lausanne, Oslo, etc., my coaches had helped me mentally prepare with a simple thought: Morceli, Aoutia, going for World Record? Asked the rabbit to go through in 2:48, which would be a PR for me in route... don't be concerned. Goal is - can you tell me (the coach) who won the race. Not, you heard it from another athlete that this athlete had won, but you, can say, who won. Meaning you were in the hunt to win. That helped discard the World Record attempt verbiage, know that from previous races those WR attempts are a lot talk and many times do not materialize, and run the race. I remember in the 1991 Lausanne meet, even pointing at Morceli and saying out loud to myself, "He won," as a way to confirm that I had been competitive and raced well.... and I was 2nd by about :20 or so in 3:50 for a mile.
During the Olympic final, one of my two coaches was in the stands, sprinted down to the rail to yell at me to sprint. After the event, back in my room and talking to my other coach in Chicago, he must have asked me 4 or 5 times, "What were you thinking?" I was waiting for someone else to press the pace. "When know one did, what were you thinking?" To this day, I can remember sitting on the edge of the bed, in Barcelona, with the phone (with a cord to the part you dial), next to my ear, and having no answer.
As noted earlier, was not going to do this again, and learned my lesson for the 1993 Worlds - took the lead, sat in, out kicked 3 in the final 150m to get 5th. No medal like 1987, but ran the race I had been trained for, and at age 33.
js