This morning, I went for an easy run along the Thames. I ran over Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Millennial Bridge and a few others. When I ran under the end of London Bridge, the song "London Bridge is Falling Down" was playing. Hearing that was quite concerning while I was running under it. In 1967, London Bridge was replaced. England decided to sell it and Robert McCulloch bought it for $2,460,000. So, it was taken apart block by block and brought to Lake Havasu City, AZ. People rumoured that Robert thought he was buying Tower Bridge, but that rumour seems to be false. I always thought that story was why the song came about, but I guess that's not true. The bridge has been rebuilt multiple times out of various materials though.
During my run, I ran past a group of about 10 Japanese runners. I couldn't resist saying something, so I enthusiastically said, "Ohayou Gozaimasu!" They all got excited and chuckled a little, then all of them returned the greeting. I really want to get back there again this year. If it's anywhere close at the finish in STG, I will be more motivated than anyone to get across that line first.
There were two sessions today at the meet. The morning session had shot put, hammer throw, heptathlon high jump, and triple jump.
The morning one went well. I'm writing this in between sessions. On the bus drive home (about 40 minutes), a Japanese coach sat next to me. I got the nerve up to say "Sumimasen. Eego ga wakarimasuka?" The means "Excuse me, do you speak English?" He said "Little bit'. I said, "Nihongo ga sukoshi, wakarimasu" which means I understand a little Japanese. We ended up talking about Ibigawa a little while I showed him pictures from my trips. It was really fun. The conversation was very simple, but the pictures helped a lot. When I asked him his name, he said Kenichi. That is Kenichi Iwama's name that has been our host the last 3 times. He goes by Eddie though because he likes Eddie Murphy.
I went out to get some photos of St Paul's Cathedral that is a block from our hotel. It's where Diana and Charles were married.
I'm off to the track again now. I'll add more a little later.
That was a crazy evening session. The women's 10k was fun to watch. It started a little slowly, then Ayana, from Ethiopia, started pressing the pace and ended up running incredibly fast. That really spread things out. The American women stuck with a pack and ran together most of the way. We ended up 6th, 8th, and 9th. The 100m is what everyone seemed to be there for. When everyone was introduced, there was great excitement for Usain Bolt. When Justin Gatlin was introduced, there was lots of booing. I'd been cheering for Christian Coleman from the US that had a great NCAA season. He's been impressive and fun to watch all year. I got a good location to film in high speed. It took some effort though. I got turned away from 4 locations I tried to get to. I thought I would get kicked out of where I found, but I think my camera lens was big enough, people thought I must belong there. Coleman had a great start and had the lead through about 80m. Bolt was closing on him slowly. When they crossed, I couldn't tell if Bolt or Coleman was ahead. I hadn't been focusing on lane 7. Justin Gatlin ended up winning in 9.92 with Coleman at 9.94 and Bolt at 9.95. It was so loud in there. The crowd was so disappointed and showed their disappointment enthusiastically. Immediately after, Bolt gave Gatlin a hug and spoke for a while. I think that helped the crowd settle down a little. There were some great sports psychology and sportsmanship lessons I learned from being there watching. I quickly exited to get back to the hotel without a long wait.
I've been getting to bed around 12:00, then we get up at 6:00 to run so that we can get to the morning sessions on time. Sunday will be a nice exception when I get the day off from running. I'm staying with Andy Ferrara. He films the track events while I do field. He is just about to hit his 40 year mark of running daily without missing. He does at least 2 miles every day. Most days are quite a bit more, but his rule is it doesn't count if he doesn't get at least 2 miles. I told him I didn't need to run on Sunday. He looked at me funny and wondered why I wouldn't run every day when training for a marathon. I told him my longest streak is only 6 days instead of 40 years. He looked a little jealous. He's told me in the past that he regrets starting that streak because now he can never let it end.
That was a crazy evening session. The women's 10k was fun to watch. It started a little slowly, then Ayana, from Ethiopia, started pressing the pace and ended up running incredibly fast. That really spread things out. The American women stuck with a pack and ran together most of the way. We ended up 6th, 8th, and 9th. The 100m is what everyone seemed to be there for. When everyone was introduced, there was great excitement for Usain Bolt. When Justin Gatlin was introduced, there was lots of booing. I'd been cheering for Christian Coleman from the US that had a great NCAA season. He's been impressive and fun to watch all year. I got a good location to film in high speed. It took some effort though. I got turned away from 4 locations I tried to get to. I thought I would get kicked out of where I found, but I think my camera lens was big enough, people thought I must belong there. Coleman had a great start and had the lead through about 80m. Bolt was closing on him slowly. When they crossed, I couldn't tell if Bolt or Coleman was ahead. I hadn't been focusing on lane 7. Justin Gatlin ended up winning in 9.92 with Coleman at 9.94 and Bolt at 9.95. It was so loud in there. The crowd was so disappointed and showed their disappointment enthusiastically. Immediately after, Bolt gave Gatlin a hug and spoke for a while. I think that helped the crowd settle down a little. There were some great sports psychology and sportsmanship lessons I learned from being there watching. I quickly exited to get back to the hotel without a long wait.
I've been getting to bed around 12:00, then we get up at 6:00 to run so that we can get to the morning sessions on time. Sunday will be a nice exception when I get the day off from running. I'm staying with Andy Ferrara. He films the track events while I do field. He is just about to hit his 40 year mark of running daily without missing. He does at least 2 miles every day. Most days are quite a bit more, but his rule is it doesn't count if he doesn't get at least 2 miles. I told him I didn't need to run on Sunday. He looked at me funny and wondered why I wouldn't run every day when training for a marathon. I told him my longest streak is only 6 days instead of 40 years. He looked a little jealous. He's told me in the past that he regrets starting that streak because now he can never let it end.
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