I've never been to a proffesional track meet before. Here are my thoughts from the 3rd row off the final stretch.
1. Tim Montgomery set the world record in the 100.
2. Very cool but the 100 is the only race where a guy can be on world record pace and you have no idea until its over.
3. Maurice came out and gave Tim a hug 10 feet from my seat got a good picture of it.
4. The crowd loved El Guerrouj, and went crazy every time he came around. I don't know if he was aiming for the record but he was on that pacefrom my watch. I got his first split in 54. There was no pacer but some French guy took the lead for 2 laps obviously as a favor to Guerrouj. Lagat, I thought, looked more comfortable then Guerrouj with 500 to go but Guerrouj still seperated from him at 250.
5. The best race was the womens 3000. Hell of a sprint by Szabo. She went out to lane tree to pass two women.
6. The mens 3k was embarrasing to watch. The hit 77 there first lap and the first 3 laps were on 5:00 1600 pace. The ran the next lap in 67 to drop it to a 4:52 at 1600m. I thought that meant they would be going hard from that point but they slowed right down again, to around 75 for the next lap. They were slower than the womens race for about 3/4 of the distance.
7. The stadium was half full (~10K people) but it felt like it was packed because eveyone was sitting on the final stretch.
8. The french need to learn some things on putting on this event.
a. We ordered our tickets on line before going but it took longer for us to get in than people who had bought tickets because they had to look though a big stack to find ours and they had no signs to which line to get in.
b. There were no pieces of memorabilia or anything to buy at the meet. Not like I want a ton of cheesy stuff but I would have liked to see a T-Shirt or something.
c. I don't think anyone in Paris can form a line. Just get in a big pack and push to the front as fast as you can.
9. Suzy Favor Hamilton ran well and was in the lead until the last 80 meters. Regina droped out after two laps.
10. Back to the 100m, why does every winner of the 100m have to rip the top of their singlet off, men of course. (I know the guy set the world record, so this is big but come on) "Oh my God, Look at my chest and ripped abs! I am SOOO FAST!"