Champion of Stuttgart Again!

Tonight was clearly one of the toughest races I've ever had to run. At the end of the day, it was my name at the top of the list at 7.45 seconds, beating Borisov from Russian by a few thousands of a second. He also ran 7.45. This establishes a new personal best for me, bettering my 7.47 from last season. Joel came home in third with a new personal best for him as well in 7.48. 4700 Continues to hold it down.

In the prelim race, after three restarts of the race, I won my heat in 7.51. I executed my start very well, although I had a slower reaction time in the prelim compared to the final (.160 to .119), I was efficient in fully extending through my hip flexor on my front leg, maximizing the forces I would put in to the ground in my seven step approach. In the final, although it was a faster time, I basically stepped out of the blocks and didn't maximize the blocks for what they are there for.

That's a lesson to all of you who want to get caught up in the numbers of reaction times. It's basically only a gauge to see who released pressure from the block the fastest, there is no measurable for who actually WAS the most efficient out of the blocks. We have a saying "You try to steal hundreths of a second at the start, you will give back tenths at the finish."

Any way the prelim went according to plan, I had the fastest time and it was also the second fastest time I had ever run to that point. Here's where the fun started. After my prelim, I was hurried back to the dressing room so that I could prepar myself for the "Parade of Stars". Keep in mind I only had 30 minutes between prelim and final. After that finished up, I had to undress, jog underneath the arena, re-check in, throw on my spikes and head to the start line. No time to take another start or get a blowout in, just set the blocks.

I like doing those type of "Parade of the Stars" deals. I remember when I was basically just a lane filler for the meets, now people come to see me and the meeting directors want you to be seen.

Anyway, the final went off, and I saw my usual position at the first hurdle, LAST. I picked up Andy Turner at touch down off of two, but Borisov was ghost. I know he is a great indoor runner, his personal best is 7.44. I picked up everybody else aside from him inbetween hurdles three and four and nipped him in the rundown. Brooks preaches to us that you have to dominate that rundown off of ten (five indoors), that's what I did and I was able to get a hard earned victory, a new personal best and the World Lead again.

I was named Male Athlete of the Meeting, I won a cool trophy (pic above). I'm happy for the win, but even more happy to be heading back to Orlando tomorrow. This was a very successful indoor campiagn. I think I have my start figured out a little more but I have lots of work to do when I get back home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BREN!! Couldn't get that WR, but the win and a new PB is fine I know.


Me and the Berlin World Championship 2009 mascot. Hopefully I will be fortunate enough to pick up the win there too.