12.95....DAMN!!!

12.95......Damn. Only eight people have ever done it better than your boy did tonight in Doha! Ever! The wind was just legal, at the limit of 2.0 m/s.

Last night before I went to sleep, I wrote down 12.96 on the paper on the nightstand, I felt that I was capable of running that time. I felt capable because I saw quite a few pictures from the race last season when I ran 13.14 and I feel that I was doing a whole lot of things wrong, I feel that I am a far better hurdler this year as opposed to last. On the bus going to the track, Paul "P. Diddy" Doyle said he had me in 12.97 with an illegal wind of 2.1, I had to give him a shout out even though I wasn't feeling the wind reading he had! LOL.

I was super nervous when I was warming up, I had no idea as to why either. It was like that feeling when you know you are ready and just hoping that it shows in the meet, plus I really, REALLY didn't want to get beaten. When we got to the line, I had two BAD run starts to the first hurdle, but I wasn't tripping, I knew I would be ready. Joel hit us with a false start on the first response to the gun, but on the second, I don't know what I was thinking, I reverted to doing what I normally do in the blocks, fall asleep. My reaction time was .226, clearly and by far the slowest out of the field. I didn't pull even with Joel and Andy Turner until right at three, but I believe I was clear of the field by the time we took number four. I'm not sure because I haven't seen any footage of the race. I stayed tight and concentrated on the rest of my hurdles and came across the finish line, when I looked back the clock read 12.94, my heart almost came out of my throat!! Then I heard them announce the wind readings and I was more than satisfied. The thing with the sprint events is, you never get too happy with your time until you get that all important wind reading.

Joel finished up second in a season best time of 13.38, he then hopped in the 200 and finished 2nd in 20.84! We were just sitting in the stands and Maury asked Joel if he still wanted to run and he hopped in and beat a lot of contending runners. He did his best R. Kelly and Doubled Up on that money! Now he's got to carry two of them big trophies back to the house, I guess that's really not a bad problem to have.

We are stepping pretty nicely in the hurdles as far as our camp goes, myself at 12.95, Aub 13.30 and Joel 13.38. Having them to train with this year is the direct reason why my times have started going down, you can never underestimate having great coaching and great training partners. The thing I always remind myself of is that you can't win anything in April, May or June, you have to bring it on those two days for four races in July. You can run 12.9 everytime you touch the track but if on July 6th you run 13.9, then everything went for not. Well not everything, but the main goal for this year has.

My hamstrings are TAPPED right now, I think I might have to hang it up for a second and recover. Joel and I are here until our flight leaves at 1:30am local time Sunday, I don't know what I am going to do all day tomorrow, I might go hit this lovely beach right outside the hotel and work on my tan some more, I'm coming for you Aub-RIDA!! Wax already called me dark skinned!!

If I can find the video, you know I will have it up.