Sydney Track Classic Results

Joel was throwing up before the race, I felt like I might have had to after the race! I felt very out of rhythm at the end of the race and I was tired! I know you're probably thinking, "how on earth could he be tired after running a 110 hurdle race?" Anyone out there with any experience knows that the first race outside after racing indoors is a monster! That's why I love outdoors, the 110s are a man's race, everybody who's worth anything can race you well for five hurdles which is indicative of my indoor performances, I won all my races by mere hundredths of a second and on an occasion thousandths of a second.

Anyway, the race went very well, I won with 13.29 seconds (0.0w). I broke Colin Jackson's previous meet record in the process. I felt I should run in this range to open up the season. My previous season openers were 2005: 14.14 (UCF Invite), 2006: 13.62 (Disney Invite), 2007: 13.36 (Disney Relays Prelim, 13.26 final), 2008: 13.42 (Disney Relays Prelim, 13.33 final).

I'm happy with that opener, it definitely sets me up well. I know once I get my race rhythm back that I will be just fine. My breathing was off for the last few hurdles, but that will come with more race modeling as well. I'm excited for the race next Thursday in Melbourne, I think that since I got the first one out of the way, I will have a little more confidence going over the ten and be able to attack it harder and run a little faster.

The fans were great, my left hand and shoulder are pretty sore this morning, must have been all the autographs I signed. I don't mind and I try not to miss one for the kids.

Unfortunately, I have to bid Sydney adieu, off to Melbourne in a couple of hours.

Getting my "Brooks Johnson" on with the hat game

Paul Doyle and Joel talking about what Asafa was about to run in that quarter, Paul called at least a personal best by one second for Asafa.
Bat and Joel
Xavier tapped in an interview after that 400, he ran a good race, just took it out a little too fast.Aussie Olympic Gold Medalist Steven Hooker. He won the competition on this jump

Aussie Update 2

So, I woke up this morning, and X hit me up asking me if I had seen the paper. I told him no, so he brought me the paper, and your boy was in there, headlining with Tiger Woods' story underneath mine. That's the first and probably the last time I'll be headlining over Tiger! LOL.
The article was just covering some stuff about Beijing and the Olympics. I told them the story of how I ate all my meals at McDonalds after that bout with the food sickness I encountered before competition and they ran with it.

After we ate, Joel, X, our assistant Coach Gary and me took a boat ride over to the Taronga Zoo.
The Sydney skyline from the boat
When we got to the zoo, we took a sky lift up to the entrance, that was pretty hot.
While up in the sky, I caught a quick picture of the elephants down there doing their thing.
We got up close and personal with some kangaroos, they weren't even caged in, they just had free range over their little area, Joel was pretty worried about that.
We caught some Kimono Dragon action too
I don't think I want any trouble with a baby giraffe, they come out the womb towering over your boy!
I don't think I was suppose to be touching the animals, but I couldn't help myself, at least there wasn't an incident.
We saw a whole lot of stuff, Tazmanian Devils, Lions, Tigers, Anacondas, Australia's biggest Python etc, but we had to get back for a lunch/press conference with the Australian Athletics Association.

The lunch was great, they honored the Aussie Olympians and Steven Hooker had a pretty inspirational speech about his journey to the Olympic Gold Medal.

Of course we had to hit a workout today too. I've been so tired at this time of the evening, my body hasn't gotten adjusted yet. Last night Joel said he was asking me if I was going to roll with him to grab some dinner and I was responding "In a minute". I don't even remember that at all! He said I even attempted to stand up, but I just laid back down on the edge of the bed with half my body off the bed! Somebody must have slipped something in my protein shake. I was out of it big time!

I better get it together because we race around this time Saturday night, so I don't need to be falling asleep in the blocks. I keep trying to get Maury to push the race up to about 11am, but I don't think that's going to happen.

I'm sure I will be alright.............I hope

Aussie Aussie Aussi Oi, Oi, Oi!!

It was a very long full day of traveling for me in order to get out to Sydney, Australia, but has it been worth it so far!

I flew on Qantas Airline for the journey from London to Sydney on its new A380 jet. This was the first time I've flown on this airline and the first time I've been privileged enough to sit upstairs on the plane lol.
It took about 16 hours to get from London to Singapore, we had a quick layover to re fuel, then hit another eight hours from Singapore to Sydney.

The meet organizer Maury Plant picked us up from the airport, he's putting us up in a very nice hotel, right downtown. I showered and was seriously tapped out within a couple of hours, the bad part was, I've been up since 4:30 this morning (+14 hours time difference from Orlando).
(Picture from the hotel room)

Joel and I hit the realest breakfast I've ever had outside of the one's that Bren throws down on when I'm out in Denver, then we hit the streets for some sightseeing.
Picture with the historic Sydney Bridge.

The legendary Opera House that you probably see in everything involving Sydney, Australia.

After our quick self-guided tour of a couple block radius from the hotel, we hit a few shops and headed back to the hotel, I had an interview to do with the local paper.

Practice was on deck after that, right at the 2000 Olympic Park
Yevgeny Lukyanenko, the Russian Silver Medalist from Beijing, joined us for the training session as well. It looks like the pole vault will be one of the hottest competitions at the meet this weekend.Joel, Maury and I
It was SUPER hot at practice today, I hadn't felt heat like that in quite a while. Training went well, I hit a massage afterward and was back on the streets of Sydney.

My favorite shops are within minutes from the hotel, Polo, Gucci, Louis Vuitton. I tried to get some shoes, but for some reason my shoe size is too big, what a shock. Not really. They kept hitting me with "We don't have very many Australians your size", 10 1/2 seems to be the biggest size available in the entire city. Oh well. Now it's time for some dinner, I'm pretty surprised I'm still up, hopefully I can sleep until at least 7 or 8.

Birmingham Recap

Well things didn't go very well today in my last indoor race of the season. I got fourth place in 7.57, behind Faulk 7.54, Payne 7.55 and Joel 7.56. I started bad, hit hurdles three, four and five. That a recipe for getting beat and that's what happened. Fourth place is the worst finish I've had since my last indoor race last season, but we all know what happened outdoors (which is the only season that counts anyway).

This indoor was still a success for what we set out to accomplish. I set a new personal best, shaving two-hundredths off my time from last year, I still have the World lead with only a couple more races around the world to go and my start is getting progressively better, not where I want it exactly, but not as uncomfortable as it started out.

I will give my indoor season a grade of A+. We didn't set out and train for indoors in any capacity and to attain what I have this season is great, indoors was a success.

I've already shaken this off, enough with this pre-season running, now off to the big boy season.

Aviva Grand Prix, Birmingham

First and foremost, my luggage has landed!! I got action earlier this afternoon. I let out a deep sigh of relief.

I had a decent training session this evening, I'm really ready to go out and end this indoor season on a good note.

The field here is probably the best one assembled so far this season. It consists of: Joel Brown (7.48), Shamar Sands (7.49), Dexter Faulk (7.50), David Payne (7.54), Andy Turner (7.57), Ty Akins (7.60), Chris Ballie (7.74) and myself.

All I'm looking to do is get out of the blocks like I have been executing and the rest will take care of its self.

This is a very early start for the meet, we go off at 1:10pm, I don't think I've ever raced that early before, guess I gotta turn it in early tonight. We will see what happens tomorrow.

Finally!!

After nearly 24 hours of travel from point A to point B, a trip that should have taken no more than 12 hours, I finally made it to the UK. Of course without my luggage. Hopefully I will have some action on the bags in the morning. The rest of my day will consist of a massage, eat, put on the Slingbox and tap out hard! I'm exhausted and my ankles are pretty swollen, all you heavy travelers out there know what I mean. I will update with some info on the meet tomorrow.

On The Road Again

As I type this, Joel and I are sitting in the airport steaming mad. We are suppose to be on my way to Birmingham U.K. for another race, but instead we have been sitting in the airport on a delay for what seems like forever. Our stop is suppose to be in Newark, probably the worst airport to travel in and out of in America in my opinion and we only had an hour layover. So needless to say, I'm sure we won't make that connection to head to the U.K. Now they are talking about directing us through Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, the worst airport in the world. I'm sure we won't see any of our luggage anytime soon if that happens. We will see what shakes out........

Big Ups.....

To my boy Lance again! He brought home two NAACP Image Awards the other night for his work with Tyler Perry. Keep up the good work!

2008 Shanghai GP Men's 110m Hurdles

Just found this video on youtube. Probably my worst technically run race of the season, but by this meet, I had checked out of the track season mentally.