The day a wombat's heart was ripped out....

The Sydney Olympic trials were supposed to be the icing on the cake, the Holly Grail of races for the wombat... Yes the Olympics were the pinnacle but the hardest part about an Olympics , which I came to realise back in 1996 was actually getting into the team. I believe once you leap that hurdle the games themselves are a piece of cake. yes I know the competition is very tough but the fact is once you are in the team all you need to focus on is running the race of your life.

My prep for 2000 had been good, I had run a PB in Chicago in October of 99 which meant I had 6 months to recover and build towards the Australian trials in April. I had qualified in the Chicago race which meant that pressure was removed for the trial. All that remained was to be either the 1st or 2nd athlete who had qualified over the line. This did not necessarily mean winning it. Providng those who did finish in front of you did not qualify during the race. The maths said it was unlikely that anyone would run a sub 2hr 14 min at the trials. Mona was already a shoe in. This left Rod DeHighen (Rowdy) Lee Troop (Troopy) Pat Carrol and myself who had all run qualifiers. This meant four runners for two places.



Training was going well. A stint up at Falls Creek post Christmas and extending inot January. This was cut short by 2 weeks as my first born wombat, who was now one, was admitted to hospital . A few phone calls and a made dash from Falls Creek had me back at the airport to make my 8.30am flight back to Perth to be with him and Mrs Wombat. My diary has me leaving Falls at 10pm , sleeping in the car along the Hume Hwy at McDonald's until 4am and arriving at the airport at 5am. I ran at the airport at 6.30am and got a morning 6miles done before arriving in Perth. Shot to the hospital and then ran from the hospital for another 5 miles feeling shattered. We slept at the hospital that night and I trained from there for the two days that the little wombat stayed in hospital.



This appeared to be the only real glitch in my lead up to April and that was only a three day hiccup. My Achilles troubled me for a couple of days and that was all. Yes sure I did not get to do a really big bulk of mileage and hard work in the much cooler climate of Falls but other that that all indicators were good.



The diary indicates some corker sessions, a win in the state 1500m in 3m56sec, A solid 29m45s run in the National 10k track champs in Melbourne and 6th Aussi placing. Then three weeks out I won the Bridges 10km in 29m40s for a new course record.



So what went wrong, I woke on the trial day feeling fantastic, my taper had been good and I was niggle free. We went to the stadium from the hotel on the race bus and my warm up was good. My coach was happy with the lead up and she too was quietly confident..



My diary for 30th April 2000 reads: Woke 3.15am 4 x toast , white coffee and 2 sugars. Easy warm up and light stretching from the gun felt good, very controlled. Magnus went hard from the start and slowly began to build a lead. Let him go as I did not see him as a threat to the outcome. In hind sight this was a major tactical error by running for position I had changed the way I had previously raced. I was running within myself at this point. The first km 3m9s. 5km was hit in 15m49sec and the 10km was hit in 32m6 sec. The main players were in the group , Troop, rowdy with pat Carrol, the fastest of the four qualifiers have a worse day than me. At half way we were 1h8m3 seconds. A slow half way time . This left a big group still and magnus was now out of sight. at about the 25km mark I started to feel like shit. Legs heavy and feeling lethargic. Hindsight I feel I had been running too slowly and I just was not used to it. Quickly got into a rut and just could not lift out of it. Watched the group move away and with it my chances of an Olympic berth.



25k to 30k split 17m 16s.. 30k - 35k split 17m 40sec and my 35k - 40k split was 18min 33s. My slowest in a marathon since China and at least at china I knew I was sick. Negative self talk brough me donw further and instead of digging and chasing I settled into rut running. Going past Doona (Sean Quilty) Iwas given encouragment from him " Go Boydie dig mate you can catch them" While I moved away from Doona thats about all I did.



Through the mouse hole and the stadium came into view. My last 2.195km was covered in 8m15secs. I crossed the line 2hrs 22m 56sec in 13th place. Rowdy had won the event having run down Magnus in a cliff hanger within view of the stadium to record 2hr 16m36 sec. Troop was 5th in 2hr 18m 50 sec. That put me out of the team.



Shattered sat in stadium solo and looked down onto field. That was as close as I was to get. Hindsight indicates I broke the rules, I changed the style at which I raced best and I out strategised myself..



Later I hoped that Troop would nominate to run the 5km track as he had already qualified for this event and I would be able to fill the void but this was not to be the case. the 2000 games was to be Mona's swan song. Troop ran aggressively however unknown to him was carry a severe injury that sidelined him for many months. Credit to the wombat inside of him that he fought back after others had written him off and went to the next Olympics in Athens to again represent his country.Of more significance, and knowing that he was coached by Mona and Mona's take on the marathon, this was also not only the birth pace of the Olympic games but the birth place of the marathon and all it came to represent. He went on to be one of our top marathon runners in Australia and continues to have an impact in the athletics arena. Way to go Lee Troop an honorary Wombat Warrior.



For the Wombat, well I was gutted, , the wind had gone from my sails and I just went off the rails... I finished the year out according to my diary but after that training was spasmodic and a bought of plantar Fascia in 2001 caused me considerable grief.



Still its that part of what we do that make us what we are and as my blog says every journey begins with a single step.. so we move on.





Barrel on wombats...