I had the great pleasure of watching, in person, the men's Olympic time trials in Central Park this morning. I was among very few spectators at 7:45/am, but once the men approached the 5K mark (22 mile mark, and where I stood in the cold and wind for the better part of two hours) for the second time, the crowd grew. The lead pack for the first lap was thick and by the second lap, there were only 5 guys. Ryan Hall ran alone for the third and fourth (final) laps. Watching him run is truly magical. If you get a chance, watch at least the last 5 minutes of the race. By the fourth lap, he had more than a two minute lead on the second place runner, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Dan Browne and Brian Sell, the third and fourth place runners, respectively. I did not expect to see Sell trailing Browne for the fourth lap, as he was way off the lead pace for the third lap. I couldn't help but cheer him on. After watching the fourth lap from the 22 mile mark, I ran across Central Park, with hundreds of other people, to watch the same runners cross the 24 mile mark. By then, Sell had moved into third. Hall and Ritz had first and second sealed. I couldn't make it to the finish for these guys but ended up hanging out there for the guys finishing slower than 2:17. I got to see Meb up close and got some good pictures. At one point, he fell to his knees and was later on the ground sobing. At first I thought that this was because he didn't make the team, but after I found out that his training partner, Ryan Shay, had died during the race, I knew what had caused his emotion. And so we have our Olympians. Congrats to Ryan Hall, Dathan Ritzenhein and Brian Sell. This was a lot of fun.
On another note, I did a lot of walking and running yesterday and today. Somehow I'm able to do this pain free in my casual shoes but can't seem to make it to the end of my street (literally) without pain in my running shoes. ???
Also, today is a day of mourning, as we lost Ryan Shay at the 5 mile mark of this morning's race.
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