Under the Arch: Day Four

 

Mike Daugherty

 

It's 6:30 pm and I just got back from day three of the meet. It was an early start about 12 hours ago for me. I watched the men's and women's marathon from mile post 15, 21, and the finish. Justin Dean was going strong when he caught an edge near the side of the road and got tweaked enough to put him out of the race. Katie ran a good race. She seemed really happy to get her shoes off at the end. She was in good spirits, funny in fact, but pretty sore. She rolled in at 18th place in a time of 3 hours 21.43 minutes. The .43 seconds seems a bit superfluous to me after 26 miles.

 

Lucas took a few practice jumps at the pole vault venue, but a sore back led him to scratch. Guess taking a day off is much deserved after two hard days in the decathlon. Another jumper out on the track was Peter Fry. Peter triple jumped 13.43 meters today. He is pretty consistent in that range. I kept checking the postings at the back of the stadium but never did see the final results of the triple jump so I don't know what place Peter came in. I suspect near his ranking though.

 

Steph ran her 3000 meter steeplechase. Another day, another PR and school record. She got 9th in the nation with a time of 11:19.29. That is about 4 seconds or so better than what she did Thursday night in the trials. It is good that steeplechasers get wet, because it rained hard just before the event. It let up, but the track was wet before the first foot got dunked in the water barrier. I really didn't need to bring as much sunscreen as I did. Two hats and an umbrella sure came in handy.

 

EOU's final competitor of the day was Doug Benson in the 1500 meter run. It was exciting, but it just happens to be one of my favorite events. I'm biased, but what are you going to do. Everyone has their weaknesses. Some like chocolate some like silk. I like the mile run; 1500 meters will do in a pinch; my concession to the metric system. Doug was a wonder to watch. He nailed down 5th in the nation with a time of 3:51.52. That's a personal record for him. His time is the third fastest in school history, just over half a second off the school record. It was so much fun to watch. I had to expend a lot of energy jumping up and down and screaming. The 1500 meter run has that effect on me.

 

I am tired, hungry, and more than a little sleepy. They say I can sleep in tomorrow before we pack up and head home. That would be good, because I have three days of sleep to catch up on.

 

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