hola chico wrote:
Tell us about your 3.35. Did you know you would run that quick? Where did you do it? How did it go down?
I had just finished 4 1/2 years training at Arkansas so I had this massive base behind me. We never did serious speed there. Then I came home and did about 5 weeks of some serious speed as well as pace workouts. So I knew I was in shape. Pretty unique to have 4 plus years of base work in preparation!!
A lot of making the Canadian Olympic team back then was running fast. The Olympic Standard was 3:38.5 but Canada said,.. ya, .. no. How about 3:37? So we had to run 3:37 which was faster than our National record so chances are 3 guys weren’t doing it. So run the time and you go.
Said race was in Vancouver. Great rabbits to go through 1k in 2:25. Sydney Maree and Ray Flynn were the headliners but the race also had Peter Rono who would win the gold a few months later ( and actually ran his fastest time of the year in this race with me ). Jeff Atkinson was also in the race and he would win the USA trials a few weeks later.
Big field, I was maybe 10th at 800m in 1:58.0
I then saw the clock with a lap to go and it was 2:42 so I knew we had a shot. I moved up on the penultimate corner with Atkinson following me. With 350 to go I passed Maree, Flynn, Gwain Guy and Dave Campbell. At 1200m ( 2:55) I was on the leader, Peter Rono’s shoulder and tried to pass him. He was like, nice try kid and held me off. I followed him into the last corner with Atkinson now fading. In the Homestretch I tried as hard as I could but he held me off.
Rono 3:35.59
Me 3:35.82
Atkinson 3:37.23
My time was considered an “A” standard ( top 10 in the world time from the year before) so it automatically put me on the Canadian Olympic team. So that was nice.
The race was actually all set up to get Dave Campbell the standard. His coach was the Canadian National Distance coach. I guess I rained on his parade.
Great question. I had actually never described that race.
Thanks