The Prefontaine Classic
We left our Grand Dawg with our niece, Carla, and headed down to
Eugene. We parked and walked across the pretty
University of Oregon
campus.
Past the pretty library.
Past the pretty art museum.
But we weren't on a campus tour. We were not looking at
architecture or ancient trees.
Goodness no. We were going to a track meet!
The Prefontaine Classic (usually referred to as "The Pre" around these
parts) is one meet in the
Diamond League Series for professional athletes. Racers compete for prize
money and accumulate points throughout the season. Meets are held all over the
world, so the athletes not only have demanding training schedules, they also
have demanding travel schedules. Sounds glamorous, but it is not. It is their
job.
We had great seats for the races - right in front of the
finish line!
The Prefontaine Classic usually has a few not-often-raced
events. Today they held a 1000m run (most of the racers were 800m guys) and
they ran two separate one-mile runs for men. It's rare to find a mile race
these days. The first mile was labeled the "international" mile. Apparently
this mile was for runners not fast enough to run with the Big Dogs in the
Bowerman Mile - always the final race and the most anticipated race of the
day. Duck junior, AJ Acosta (in white, lane 1) and ex-Duck Galen Rupp (in
lane 5, pumping his arms) were crowd favorites. I have no idea why this
would be the "slow" mile, as ten men finished under 4 minutes. AJ ran a
fantastic 3:53!
In other news... Tariku Bekele of Ethiopia won the 5000m in
12:58.93.
America's Sweetheart, Allyson Felix, won the 400m.
USA's Dwight Phillips jumped with an injury, but still came
in second in the long jump.
Chinese long jumper, Li Jinzhe, was third. Just loved Li's
technique! Looks like he is in a martial arts pose.
The last race of the day - The Bowerman Mile - was loaded
with some of the best milers in the world. Stacked, actually. How would our
Mr. Wheating (who represented the USA in Beijing in the 800m) do against the
Big Boys? Andrew Wheating was introduced to the crowd. We went wild. His
last race in a Duck kit.
Bittersweet.
Am I really standing on a track with Lopez Lamong, Asbel Kiprop and Daniel Komen?
The racers are introduced. USA. Kenya. Ethiopia. Morocco.
Bahrain.
Let's go!
A pace-setter leads (in green) the pack around the first two
laps. Then, he drops out and lets the racers get down to business.
Andy finishes in fifth place! In this photo, he is waiting
for the scoreboard to show his official time.
Did someone say 3:51!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wheating becomes
the fastest Duck miler of all time (and AJ becomes the third). Asbel
Kiprop of Kenya won the race in 3:49. What a day. What a meet!
On the way back to Portland, we drove past the Matt Knight
Arena. An amazing amount of work has been completed on this building since
our last visit.
Duck runner, Matthew Centrowitz, rode back to Portland with us. Matt's dad was
DT's teammate at the University of Oregon in the 1970's.
My Boys: DT, Reese and Matthew. Matt will spend the night at
Taylor Manor and we will schlep him to the airport in the morning. Matthew
gets to spend the rest of the summer with his family in Maryland.
Big shout-out to Carla for watching Reese all day! Thank you
very much!
Until my next update, I remain, your "I love runners"
correspondent.