The Prefontaine meet was really nice, as usual!

I wish the atmosphere could be recreated in other places in the U.S. It reminds me of competing in so many meets in Europe, especially Zurich. No matter what the stands look like before the first race you can rest assured that it will be totally packed before the first gun fires. It makes racing so much more exciting when there are thousands of fans interested in your performance.

I felt very prepared going into the race, but you can never truly predict your time in the 400 because the wind can be such a huge factor. The race was pretty early and it was cool with mild winds. At this point, I wasn’t overly concerned about running a really fast time, I just wanted to win. I was thrilled when I looked up and saw 49.85. I felt as though I held back a bit on the backstretch so going sub 50 was really exciting!

However the highlight of the meet happened by accident!

After the race I saw a really nice lady and felt the urge to give her my flowers. I had no idea who she was but I prefer to give my flowers to someone I make eye contact with than to just randomly throw them in the stands. After the meet was over, I went to the restroom and found out I gave my flowers to Mrs. Prefontaine! What are the chances? She was so happy. She rarely goes out anymore because she’s blind but of course enjoys honoring the memory of her son, Steve, every year. I was so excited to meet her and she felt the same way.

After the Pre meet, I went home for one day and headed to Europe to prepare for the meet in Berlin. I wanted to get one more race in before going to Nationals, and why not run on the track I hope to be back on in August! There’s just something about the blue track that I love. Not sure if it’s only in my mind, but it just seems a little easier to get around. I hoped to run 49.5 at the meet but knew it was a bit presumptuous because I’ve never run that fast so early. I was elated to see the time I’d hoped for and only desire that I will continue to get faster as the season progresses!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 18th, 2009 at 4:34 am and is filed under sanyarichards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.