Its really like the Olympics without all those other sports like curling, hockey etc. Its just track and field. They don't run every event in the world so its only like two and a half hours long. Short as track meets go. Another reason it doesn't last that long is their hurdle crew. They are just fun to watch. At a high school meet its this major endeavor to set the hurdles up at the right places and at the right heights. It takes forever. In Eugene, they've got their act together.There were a lot of record holders / Olympic champions. I remember a lot of them from the Rio Olympics. Mo Farrah was there. He's been a big name in track and field for a long time. He said this is his last race in America. He won the 5,000 meters.
They had a mile run in which everyone ran under four minutes. If you know about track, you that is just amazing. I feel bad for whoever came in last place in that race. He ran well under four minutes and was just maybe 3 or 4 seconds away from winning. Yet you kind of feel sorry for him. So even one of the fastest men in the world ends up being pitied. Fame is really overrated.
The meet is named for Steve Prefontaine. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I got his autograph years ago. It was after the college championships. I saw him alone on the infield. I ran over to him asked him to sign my program, told him "Good job, Pre", and he grunted. I was in heaven.
At that time my goal was to run a four minute mile. I've pretty much given up on that goal. I guess it will have to be good enough that rather than run one, I got to watch others run one.
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