World Champs Semi-Final

Ran 13.42, didn't make it to the final. I didn't fully trust my leg and paid for it. I came out slow and by the time I realized I was going to be okay, we were at hurdle 4. I brought it in as strong as I could, but it wasn't good enough. I wish I could go back and get the start that I would have wanted to get, but much like in the game of life, our races don't come with a rear-view mirror, you just have to suck it up and move on.

I'm very disappointed, leading up to the prelim race, I was having some wonderful practices and feeling very prepared, but to have anything distract you, especially at this level, you will get beat.

I am glad that my hamstring is fine, the medical staff are saying that there is nothing structurally wrong with it, there is some inflammation that was causing the discomfort. My range of motion was normal when I was getting worked on before the race. I just lacked the confidence in it I needed to succeed.

Well my World Championships are over, now I will turn my focus to cheering like hell for Terrence and Payne in the final tomorrow night, I hope they take the top two spots in whatever order. I'll continue to get treatment while I'm here to get rid of any symptoms and you will see me run in Zurich!

World Champs First Round

Damn, that's all I can say. I tweaked my hamstring practicing about a week ago, took a few days off and came back feeling good. I had a great warm-up, but going in to hurdle #5, it kind of grabbed on me. I ran 13.66, good enough to be the dead last qualifier. I'll be in heat 3, lane 8 in the semi's with Liu Xiang and Robles in my heat. They are taking top 2 and next 2 fastest to the final. My hamstring is feeling okay now, I'll be treating it for the next 24+ hours and see how warm-ups go tomorrow night, I don't have any other option but push to it to the limit tomorrow.

Denver Post Article

John Meyer of The Denver Post ran a nice article on me that was published this morning. I particularly like it for the fact that it included my mom. Without her where would I be? Thanks John and talk to you soon. You can check it out here:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_6703469

Osaka Update #2

It's been a few days, but nothing has changed here, still training and hanging out. I haven't gone anywhere around town to do any sightseeing, the only sight I have seen is the track, and it is pretty impressive, the warm-up track looks like it can host a track meet it's self. I finished up my second training cycle so I was off yesterday and I'm off today. I went to the mall yesterday with Melissa Beasley and Ross from USA Track & Field and it was pretty funny. Everywhere we went people were stopping me to take pictures and shake my hand, people were actually feeling my biceps muscles seeing how strong they felt!! I guess it doesn't take much to impress them. Osaka has been very welcoming and cordial to all of us. The only downside is that the rooms we are staying in are very small, our luggage barely fits in here and the food they continue to serve is always hit or miss. Our only saving grace is there is an Outback Steakhouse, McDonalds and Pizza place within a two block radius. I might start going to the other athlete hotels to see what they are eating because I've had enough of this. Good thing NIKE hospitality suite opens up today, they always seem to have good food. I don't run my first round for another five days, Kenta has his first round tomorrow night, he's looking great in practice, I hope he takes home the Gold.

On another note, I can't believe the IAAF cancelled the use of the World Rankings! Now what am I suppose to look at on Tuesdays? Not only that but I now wonder what the powers that be are going to use for our US Olympic Comittee Insurance, The Olympic Jobs Program and our World Rankings Check. But I guess it is what it is.

I'm a big fantasy football fanatic. This season, I'm lining up against 11 of my friends from high school and college, I have no idea how I became a fan of this, but it's addictive. This is my third year playing and I won the first two, so I plan on running my streak to three in a row. My draft is the 25th at noon eastern which means 1am Osaka time. I'm ready too, I've made my draft board up and everything, hopefully I have a top three pick!

Osaka Update #1

It's Sunday night, I'm just finishing up my second day off from training. I finished my first three day cycle a couple days ago and man it was tough. Training went well, the first three days consisted of a lot of race modeling and conditioning. It was tough because I was doing things I haven't done since before USA Championships, but I felt great doing it. I couldn't wait to get out here to get back to training with Brooks, he has me poised to make some real noise here, I am feeling just as confident now as I was back at USA's, I knew he would get me back right mentally as well as physically. We are at training camp now, we're right by the airport but about 45 minutes from Central Osaka where the Athlete's Village is. We will be moving there on the 21st. I haven't been doing much aside from training, hanging with the other athletes and getting worked on. The food isn't great, so me and Kenta have been going to this mall they have, eating authentic food but finishing it off with an American twist with our Starbucks runs.

The people here are great, they had a welcome party for us last night where they had cheerleaders and a band perform for us. When we go to do our workouts, there are hundreds of people out there watching us and they have to pay the facility to get in! I had never heard of anything like that before. This has been a great experience thus far and I am very thankful that I was able to perform at USA Championships to make it here, we all know how hard making the team as a 110 hurdler is in the States.

On IAAF they have a fantasy contest for the World Championships at osaka.fantasyathletics.iaaf.org, where you have to choose 10 men and 10 women from 20 different countries. It's pretty hard, but I was able to manage and I made myself a team that's looking pretty unstopable if I must say. It's not final yet but my team consists of:

Women: Isinbeyava (PV), Halkia (400h), Vlasic (HJ), Gomes (TJ), Felicien (100h), Hellebaut (HJ), Obergfoll (JAV), Ostapchuk (SP), Mutola (800) with Veronica Campbell (100,200) the captain of my team.

Men: Murofushi (Hammer), Atkins (100), Liu (110h), Bekele (10,000), Hooker (PV), Pitkamaki (JAV), Saladino (LJ), Alekna (Disc), Kemboi (3,000 Steeple) and you know who's captain of this ship, D.O. (110h)!

Go to the website and sign up, it's something fun to do. Until next time.......

Made It In

It was a pretty long 27 hours of travel time to get from point A to point B, but it was well worth it. If you ever fly to Asia, Korean Air is the way to go, getting extra pillows and seatback love! Big thanks go out to Sandy Snow at USA Track and Field for booking me on that airline! I was in economy but I still had about an extra foot of leg room and my own tv screen. They had about 50 movies you could choose to watch at your own leisure, I watch four, Shrek the third, Fracture, Reign On Me and Shooter plus I watched the recap of the 2006 IAAF Golden League season, it was a 30 minute production and it was cool seeing a show devoted soley to track and field.

The training camp hotel is very nice, from the room you have a view of practically the whole city. But of course the TV action sucks, only CNN in english as usual. I got caught slipping, I knew I should have gotten the Slingbox hooked up while I was at home. I hung out with Brooks for about an hour as well. I only slept for four hours last night but I'm feeling pretty good, Brooks isn't cutting me any slack either, I have practice later on this afternoon.

Finally Time To Get Outta Here!!

My plane's taking off in the morning heading to Osaka for the World Championships and I can't wait. I've been down here training and doing much of nothing. I can't wait to get out of Orlando and to a change of scenery. It's going to be a long flight, 15 plus hours of flight time from Atlanta to Osaka, but it's worth it and well deserved. Next time you here from me, I'll be in Japan, 13 hours ahead of eastern time, until then sayonara.

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I'm very bored, don't have too much of anything to post about. I wish I was racing or something. Can't wait until August 29th. Just watched Barry Bonds hit home run #755, he's a beast. I think I like him because everyone else hates him. I got back to the O early Friday morning (2:30am), more delayed flights, the theme of my travels. I'm still tired from the time trial 400 I had to run yesterday. Check out the new pics I posted.