Competition Day 7

This morning, we had no events to go film, but I had a 25 miler to do.  So, I got up without an alarm.  It was 8:18.  That's the most sleep I've had since arriving.  I had a large drink of water and a digestive biscuit.  I took the underground to Hyde Park and did the run as a little over 6 laps of Hyde Park/Kensington Park.  About half way through, I caught up to a man running.  I said, "Hi", but he didn't respond.  We ran together for about a mile with him right next to me. I decided to try again and said, "Where are you from?".  He said Spain.  We spoke a little longer, but not about much.  His English is better than my Spanish, but we still couldn't communicate very well.  After about 10 more minutes, he said, "I will have a strain!"  Then, he laughed.  He slowed down and turned off while I laughed with him and said goodbye.  That was about all that happened.  25 milers are not usually filled with excitement, but I did enjoy the run.  I had stashed a Gatorade where I would finish and drank that on the way back to the hotel.  I drank two more litres of water, then Andy and Meghan (a distance coach) and I went to a restaurant for fish and chips.

One thing I learned from my run is that bangers and mash with yorkshire pudding and gravy with sticky cake and custard is not a good choice for the day before a 25 miler.  I didn't have to stop, but just kept feeling a little uncomfortable the entire time.

The evening session had an exciting men's triple jump competition.  Christian Taylor (USA) and Will Claye (USA) have been winning gold and silver in that order for multiple World Championships and the Olympics for a few years now.  The competitions are always close, but Christian has won every time.  Will jumped further at first, then Christian took over, then Will, then Christian again.  Will fouled his last attempt, so Christian ended up winning by 5 cm.  They were jumping over 17 m, so a 5 cm difference is tiny.  Chris Benard ended up 6th overall.  Places 4 through 6 all jumped 17.16m, but the other two jumpers had better second best jumps, so finished ahead of him.

We thought it was funny that under the "Fit & Healthy" section, the first thing is Macaroni Cheese with garlic bread.  I also listed it as vegetarian.

These are one of the things I've always liked.  They had some in the training room. I just used the Normatek boots to help recover from the morning run.