Athens Grand Prix On Deck

I just arrived in Athens, Greece after a VERY long 24 hours full of travel. Once again all my flights were delayed plus they lost my bag in Paris, but me being me, I had another carry-on packed with all my race/practice gear and toiletries. I stay two steps ahead of cats if not thirty! Young Hughes (Robby) is my roommate up here, so it'll be pretty cool. I don't know who is all running here, but I know it'll be hot. I'm looking forward to running pretty fast up here.

US National Championships 2007

1 Terrence Trammell 13.08
2 Dominique Arnold 13.17
3 David Oliver 13.18
4 David Payne 13.22
5 Anwar Moore 13.23
6 Aries Merritt 13.24
7 Allen Johnson 13.60
-- Ryan Wilson DNF

Ostrava: No Go

My coach told me in these exact words before catching his flight tonight, "You better not get your ass on that plane tommorow! You made World Championships, so plans have changed!" I wanted to do the meet, but when the head man speaks, it's spoken. Sorry.

World Championships Here I Come!!!!!

I finished third in the finals with a time of 13.18 to punch my ticket for the World Championships in Osaka, Japan in August. The semi-finals went as planned earlier in the day, finishing second in my heat with 13.29 behing Terrence Trammell's 13.26. The weather was pretty gloomy all day until after the meet, now it's sunny and warm. I am so excited, my mom and best friends were in attendance at the meet. As those who are faithful readers of my blog know, the last month of the season wasn't going as well as I would have hoped for, but this race erased all of that. It was a hot race top to bottom with Trammell running 13.08 for the win and Arnold taking the silver with 13.17. I am now scheduled to leave in the morning to head over to Europe for the meet in Ostrava, I will post this race as soon as I find it and thanks for your support!

USA's: First Round Down, Two To Go

The prelims were crazy, the wind was ridiculous and it started raining right after the first round was over, those guys caught a break with that and the light wind. For the rest of us, it was crazy with the winds in excesses of -3.2. I ran 13.56 to take the win in my heat. The race went well, I hit the sixth hurdle and shut it down a little just making sure I clear the rest of the hurdles cleanly, we didn't want a repeat of Oslo. I felt very good so I need to carry it over to tomorrow. For tomorrow I'm in heat 2, lane 4 with the likes of Terrance Trammell (lane 2), Ryan Wilson (lane 3) and Anwar Moore (lane 5) in there. They are taking top four to the final, I have to make sure I'm in there somewhere.

Indy Shower, Had To Post This!

I had to post this situation that I found myself in at my hotel (a hotel that shall remain nameless because I don't want to bombard their reservations department with cancellations, a clue is it's heiress was in jail recently). I came back from the track and wanted to hop in the shower before laying down, so I go to the shower and turn it on and no water comes out. My friend Andrew (the guy in the pic I posted a month ago on the blog that looks like Shawn Crawford), calls downstairs and they say that something happend with some construction going on and knocked a water pipe out, but they said they can help. So I was like 'cool'. I sit around, then I hear a knock on my door, and to my surprise it's a lady from registration carrying about 15 bottles of water with her that I am to use to shower with!!!!! I was like "what?!?!?" I took the water and stood in the shower pouring cold bottled water on myself and on my wash cloth so I could wash my stank behind. I tried to get a night for free, but all we got was free breakfast, I can't complain because four nights only cost us $130 each double room. If this has happend to you, please post a comment so that I may laugh at you like you are probably doing right now. Wish me luck for the prelims tomorrow!

USA Championships On Deck

I just arrived in Indianapolis today for the USA World Championships Team Trials. I'm feeling good, coming off of a few good days of practice. I can't wait to run the prelim race, I've got to get something good on the board to erase the bad taste in my mouth from my last race. The preliminary heat sheets have me in the last heat (4) in lane 7. Some of the competitors in my heat right now are Terrance Trammell, Aubrey Herring and my ex-training partner Linnie Yarbrough. My boy Jacoby has a pretty crucial heat with Anwar Moore, Ryan Wilson, Ron Bramlett, Robby Hughes and Josh Walker in his prelim line-up. I'm pretty happy right now, two of my best friends came in town and my mom is coming on Saturday morning to watch the competition, I think things will go pretty good for me at this meet.

Pics From The Oslo Tumble

BE GLAD IT ISN'T YOU!! TAKING SHOWERS HAVE ALMOST BROUGHT ME TO TEARS!! NOTHING IS INJURED EXCEPT MY PRIDE MAYBE, SO THATS A BLESSING.

Oslo: Shoulda Stayed My @$$ At Home!!

I fell on the last hurdle. I haven't fallen since my senior year in college at conference championships. I had a great warm-up and was feeling good. In the race I was step-for-step with Payne, but we know how it ended. Nothing has gone right for me for this meet, whether it was trying to arrive in Oslo, to my nose starting to bleed right in the middle of my warm-up, which took almost a half hour to make it stop, to falling in the race, and now I seem to have lost one of my diamond earrings. I can't wait to go home tomorrow. It was a nice meet and the crowd was great as well, but now its on to U.S. Championships next week. The pendulum has been swing against me hard the past few weeks, but that doesn't last forever.

Oslo Golden League: Finally Here!

After sitting on the plane again trying to get to Newark yesterday for another hour and some change, I finally made it out there. We sat on the plane for two hours before we got airborn on our way to Oslo as well, but it was better this time because I was up in first class, eating lobster and tilapia. I arrived a little after noon local time (6am eastern) and felt pretty good. They took me to some sort of training camp where I guess I'm staying for tonight, I wasn't feeling it until I ran in to Anwar, Payne and Joel, and they had been staying there for a couple days, so I don't feel that bad. We all went to the track and did a light workout to knock a little of that flight off my legs. We rolled back to the actual meet hotel with Robby Hughes so we could eat because they didn't have any water or really edible food at our place, and to get a massage. I figure the fastest way to take care of all your problems is to drop that 12.87, then you can stay wherever you want. It looks like a pretty hot field for the race tomorrow night, but it is cold as I don't know what out here now and we run at 9:05pm so I can only imagine what it will feel like, but I'm just happy to be able to be a part of the meet. We'll see what happens.

Oslo Travel=Disaster! (So Far Anyway)... Here We Go Again

Needless to say, your boy was suppose to be on his way to Oslo as we speak, but do to some unforeseen circumstances in Newark, NJ (where my connecting flight was leaving from), I am back at home in Orlando. Here's the time frame rundown of my airport fiasco:

2pm: Leave the house for the airport, my original flight is at 3:54pm placing me in Newark at around 6:30 pm for my Oslo flight that leaves at 8:15 local time.

2:45pm: Arrive at my original gate, where it says Delayed until. I was like "Delayed Until? What the hell?" So I ask the women at the gate "How long are we delayed?, I have a short connection for an international flight." She says "Oh no problem, go down to gate 9, they are taking off at 3:30." So she places me on that flight and I head down there thinking I'm straight, so I get on the plane and start talking to a passenger and she says they have been on the plane since around 1:30, I was like 1:30! That's some straight b.s., but the pilot got on the mic and said that they are going to release us at 4pm, so I'm feeling good. Obviously that didn't happen.

3pm-7pm: We sit on the plane, half the time at the gate and the other half on the runway, and as a surprise to myself, I am actually remaining pretty calm. I guess it was reading this good book I found called "2nd Chance" by James Patterson. We taxi back off the runway to the gate and de-plane. As I'm walking to get re booked, they make an announcement saying all flight have been released, but that does me no good because there is only one flight per day leaving to Oslo from Newark, so I missed the connection anyway.

7:30pm: Got re-booked for the flight tomorrow, the woman at the gate tells me the flight to Oslo from Newark is booked full. I tell her "I run track professionally and I have a meet in Oslo and I have to be there immediately. Not making it there could cost me upwards of $16,000!" She then was like "Oh my goodness, we have to get you there!" So she upgraded me to first class for the flight tomorrow. Finally a perk from using running track! I guess all things won't end up so bad, even though I'd rather be there in the morning then on Thursday morning, but you have to play the cards you are dealt. My flight tomorrow is at 1pm, so we'll see what happens.

Pre Classic: Another Race Down The Drain

I'm not too disappointed about the race today, of course I wanted to run a faster time, but on the bright side, it was the mistake of hitting a hurdle late in the race that took me out of contention. I felt pretty good getting out, and was effective in every area that me and my coach had been working on this week early in the race, but as I went to hit my second gate, I ended up crashing hurdle #6 pretty bad and knocked me off balance and it was a wrap from there. I ran 13.42, worst time of the year, but I feel WAY better than I did running 13.28 last week in New York. The weather was very crappy up here in Eugene with the rainy and windy conditions and my eyes have been killing me ever since I got up here with this pollen problem they have. Now it's off to the Bislett Games in Oslo, Norway for the first Golden League event of the season. I'll post the race up if I find it.

Next Event: Prefontaine Classic

The 110 hurdle field was announced yesterday, and it's looking like another smoker. The field will include the World Record holder Liu Xiang, the defending World Champion from France, Ladji Ducoure', four-time World Champion Allen Johnson, the American Record holder Dominique Arnold, the ninth fastest American of all-time Ryan Wilson, Aries Merritt, Anwar Moore and myself. At 13.14, I have the slowest personal best in the field! I've got to put together my A race, coming off back-to-back poor performances at Carson and New York. The fields at the meets that I have been competing in have been getting progressively intense, after this race I will go to the first Golden League meet of the year in Oslo, Norway, so it won't get any easier there.

Reebok Grand Prix 2007 Video

Bad race from my standpoint, but a hell of a race from a fans view, so I'll post it up.

Lane 1: Wignall 13.54
Lane 2: Moore 13.34
Lane 3: Arnold FS
Lane 4: Trammell 12.95
Lane 5: Liu 12.92
Lane 6: Payne 13.15
Lane 7: Merritt 13.20
Lane 8: Oliver 13.28
Lane 9: Wilson 13.02

Reebok Meet = Straight Garbage

I got scraped up in New York, running 13.28 for sixth place. Knocked down about seven hurdles. I gotta regroup and get ready for Prefontaine next weekend. Congrats to Terrance and Ryan running great races.