WOW...what a fabulous 10,000 last night at Stanford. The weather at 9:15 could not have been more ideal. The small stadium ambiance, energized crowd and percussion section off the first turn made for the most exciting 10 that I've ever witnessed (including a rain soaked 27:18 by Barrios in Berlin, Virgin's AR 27:39 and the infamous Herb Lindsay/Craig Virgin duel at the '80 "Trials"). As hard as they went out (lots of 65s...unofficially 13:34 at halfway), I'd have anticipated a higher attrition rate in the final kilos. Kennedy hung on gamely to the orange singleted Kenyan clan over the first 5000...Meb immediately off his shoulder. Kennedy was gapped by 5-10 meters a number of times yet continued to reel the group back in. Somewhere near 6K, Kennedy was clearly off the group and for reasons unknown to me , pulled off the track, leaving a very aggressive Meb to respond to the intense surging up front. With about 2000 to go the leaders were lapping lots of guys (fast guys!!)...most of whom did not move out to lane 2...Meb was running way out in 2 through the turns, costing him a precious second or two for sure. When the leaders came trough at the bell at approximately 26 flat, the crowd was going wild...Meb about 11 or 12 seconds back. Chebii's acceleration with about 250 meters remaining was INTENSE!! I swear he must have run something like 25 point over the final 200. ...fastest time ever on US soil (eclipsing Geb's Atlanta Oly 27:07), a serious (nearly 7 second) AR, NRs for Canada and Japan...some significant PBs (i.e Culpepper)...all of this and more (i.e. Tim Broe's stadium record/17 second PR @ 5000 over Matt Lane)... not a bad little local all-comers meet. I'll go on the record saying that it lived up to the advance local press/internet hype...AND THEN SOME!!! See you in Eugene for HOOTIE 3.0 -Mike Mike Fanelli San Francisco Bay Area Real Estate Specialist professional representation of buyers and sellers [EMAIL PROTECTED] 415.447.6254 or visit my web site at: www.SFabode.com
