I gave it my all......the 2nd Round (Women's 400)

Ni hao (Hello in Chinese)

I know so many of you have emailed me over the past days and stated how happy you are that track and field has started! Thanks again for all your emails and by the way I hope that you were able to catch a glimpse of Mike Phelps take home so many gold medals. Man, I don’t even know the guy but I am now his number one fan. How does he do it? He is an amazing little fish or big fish I should say! Even though I have not gone to any of the other venues I have enjoyed reading our little SPOTLIGHT NEWSLETTER that comes out each day. It alerts all the athletes to how everyone is doing. Great huh, the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) continues to do a great job taking care of the athletes.

The second round was scheduled to go off at 9:00pm so I decided to take a small nap earlier in the day. I would stick with the same routine and warm-up and get to the track ready to go. I felt really good and happy that I had got some of the track jitters out the way in the earlier round. All 3 Americans had advanced to the next round and I was thankful for that. We all were in different heats so now the goal was to place top two and make it to the final. This round would be a harsh round in which everyone would push their body to the limit. I was in lane 7 and needed to have a race like at the Trials, of course not with the weird finish, but a strong race. In these big meets you never know what to expect with lane draws except maybe in the final. So prior to going out to the stadium, Chris and I had to converse through a fence. Yes, long story but here it goes. Prior to the Olympic Games there is a coaching staff that is chosen for both the men and the women teams. As a sprinter I have a coach who represents the 400 meter group and we report to them at all times. Since all the athletes come from different places and backgrounds, we have our own personal coaches also. So imagine if every athletes coach could be on the warm up field during the Games, it could be a mad house..haha. Well anyway Chris did not have a credential to be on the warm-up track but we found a nice little spot by this fence that was slightly bent outside the warm-up track. This is how he watched me warm-up and how he gave me a good luck kiss and hug. Yes it was weird but we made it work.

I really wanted to do well this round, as the gun went off I pushed out of my blocks and ran the first curve. I headed into the 250 mark and felt as if I didn’t have the turnover that I usually would have at these point. What could be happening, I stayed calm and gave my all and still covered no ground. I saw my Olympic dream slipping away but nothing was coming from these legs. I crossed the line in 5th and was disappointed but decided to support my teammates and watched the other heats. Only one of the three fellow Americans made it into the final. I was happy for her that we had an American representation in the final and as I stepped off the track I thanked God for my blessings and held my head high.

Yes I didn’t make the final, but it wasn’t quite the end for me, because I still had a chance in the RELAY!! How many people have that opportunity? I was still an Olympian and nothing could change that. I am staying focused and getting myself ready for he 22nd and 23rd. Wish me luck.