Run to the Games: Day 2 of Racing

Today a good day of racing. Tom still could not attend but he is on the up and up. I got there and found that the team had gotten there before I had which was a pleasant surprise. On the docket was the 400 hurdles prelims, 200m prelims, 800m prelims, 5k and 3k speedwalk finals, and the 4x100m prelims for men this is the only race the women went straight to finals. The 400m hurdles I had two men who started running over hurdles last week. I did my best to get them ready but the had not run over hurdles at that distance yet. We had been focusing on the 110m higher hurdles which is actually the same height as the 400m hurdles I ran in college. For those of you who don't know I ran the 400m hurdles(to train for steeplechase), 800m, 1500m, 4x400m my first 2 years of college, I didn't race my third year, I was in Vietnam and then my senior year I ran the 400m, 400m hurdles, 4x400m, and 4x100m. So I am a jack of all trades king of nothing. When I coached at the community college level in Arizona, I was the assistant cross country coach and assistant track coach for hurdling. I felt a certain need to make these guys good at the event I was attached to. For a first race ever they blew my mind. I was ecstatic. One guy didnt shuffle step (when a runners steps are off they shuffle to make sure the correct leg leads over the hurdle, usually a sign that they are lacking confidence and not attacking I did this alot) and the other only did a few times but overall it went great. That being said I dont think either one made it to finals. We did not have any women run and there were only three so it went straight to finals. Next up was the 200m my guys ran well but neither well enough to hit finals they were hard on themselves but lost to some guys who looked like they would have been out of place on some college teams (big dudes). The girls also had some good personal performances but nothing much to show in the overall results arena.
Out of nowhere the meet stopped and there was an award ceremony for yesterdays medalists. Luang Prabang had two bronze medalist both in the 1500m. I think I was wrong yesterday in saying that our guy got 4th. Pictures explain better than words, so I have some below, but it was an event. They stood out on a podium and got their medals from local officials escorted by pretty girls. Really cool for these kids to get to do this, I just wish they all could experience being up on the podium at any position. After the ceremony it was back to racing with the 800m.
I tried to stress to all of our distance runners stay relaxed and run the beginning easy. First guy did not listen and had a rough race because of an injury. Bpet our second guy did and got second in his heat and ran really well. I hope he gets to finals. On the girls side same advice. The first girl also wasnt feeling well so the strategy didnt matter. Our second girl ran the best race of her life and got 2nd in her heat but probably did not make it to finals it was a much slower heat. The 5k and 3k walk were combined and this is where the really got drama began. Speedwalking is defined by having one foot on the ground at all times. The top two girls were penalized for running which gave our girl second a great result. The top two girls were warned then a few laps later the main judge brought out a few sheets one red, one yellow, and one green. She waved the yellow flag at the two leaders and that was it. I had never seen it before. Our top guy in the 5k didnt feel very well so he had to drop out even though he was in 4th. The mens 4x100m was the last race of the day and it was 2 heats. The first heat team Savannakhet blew away the field with a time around 45 flat. My guys were in the second heat and I was very nervous. This race could sway moral in one of two ways. The guy we had running first didnt set up his blocks how I told him and was set up different then I taught him so now I was really nervous. The gun goes up and they were off. He gets out well considering the deficiencies. He runs his leg well making up a little of the stagger for the handoff. The handoff was nearly perfect and very smooth this got our number 2 guy out having made up a good portion of the stagger already. The second handoff was much like the first smooth and quick. By this point it was basically over my top two guys running 3 and 4 and they just keep growing the lead. The third handoff wasnt as good as the first two but they didnt lose any time. Coming down the homestretch the lead was over 10ms and it was ours. The were elated and we all were pumped. Best case scenario for LP. We ended up running around 46 which would have placed us second. I found out later that Savannakhet was disqualified for some reason. I hate to win it that way but it is one less team to take on at finals. We headed out excited and ready for racing to continue tomorrow.