I just got back to Flagstaff after a very memorable trip to Eugene. Our group would be staying in a house we were renting out the week of the championships, very different from usual trips where we stay in hotels, but a nice change. Wednesday we went to check out the adidas house, and I was surprised and super excited to see this:



My first poster!!!

Surrounded by posters of some of adidas' biggest stars like Jeremy Wariner and Tyson Gay was one of ... me! I couldn't believe it, a lot like my first time lining up again guys like Bernard Lagat at US Championships, this was another "Wow, I've really made it far doing this running thing" moment. After owning the Foosball table against unworthy challengers Nick and Scott; I returned to rest up for the big race the next day.

The race itself played out similar to how Greg and I expected it would, with all of the favorites in the race not known for going to the front to push the pace, we expected a sit-and-kick, tactical race. However we expected someone would get antsy around 3k to go, rather than have the whole field still in the race with 1,000 meters left! I obviously felt great while running numerous 70 and 71 second laps, and I think eventually that pace lulled me into not paying attention late, and found myself sitting about 10 meters back from the leaders when they started to make their move with 1k left, instead of being right behind or beside them. Avoiding a lot of traffic trying to catch up, I wasn't able to get a little space until a lap later, and by that point the leaders were too far out in front, and already running at top speed, leaving me no chance to catch up. I finished 7th, exactly where I was seeded to finish after Solinsky didn't enter, but it was still disappointing because I felt like I was better than that, and especially the way the race played out, it was a big lost opportunity.