No Halferty Wedding

The race yesterday was a major step for me and I'm glad to get to my first USATF final. I'm definitely missing out on seeing Clark get married and catching up with all my old friends that will be at the ceremony. During the last week I've had a number of calls of support and I was hoping to see those people at the wedding, but it will have to wait until another time. Going into my race on Friday it was very reassuring to know that no matter the outcome I had a large group of family and friends who support me. I know that even if I had run the worst race of my life I would have been welcomed to the wedding with open arms. The thought of seeing my old college teammates and friends helped put it in perspective and made it easier to compete for a spot in the finals. The race went out in 62 for the first quarter and I was in the top 4. David Torrence made a strong move and spread the field out and we came through the 800 in around 2:02 and I was just off the lead in 4th or 5th. Around 600 to go I moved up and with 500 to go things really started to spread out with me battling with Manzano for 3rd or 4th. At the 1200 split I was somewhere around 3:03 or 3:04 and I don't really remember the details. In the home straight Shane Stroup was just ahead of me and he drifted out to lane 2, right in front of me. I could tell that I wasn't going to be able to get around him on his right so I darted for the inside of the track and went for the finish line. I grabbed the last spot for the final but I had no idea until back in the athlete area when Shane's coach, Jeff Pigg, told him that he missed the finals by one spot. I asked Coach Pigg (who I happen to know pretty well) if I had made the final and he just gave me a smile and said something smart-ass about me being from Missouri. Since he knows me from my days at Southwest Missouri State, I let it slide and enjoyed the good news. After the race I enjoyed spending some time with some great friends, Mark Misch, Greg Hipp, Jeff Stiles and his wife Heather. This morning Corey and I made it to the Athletes in Action chapel and enjoyed a great message from Jeff. For more information on Athletes in Action check here: http://www.aia.com/track/ To see Jeff Stiles' bio and his handsome face go here: http://bearsports.wustl.edu/crosscountry/crosscountrycoach.html I'm not sure exactly what the television schedule is for tomorrow, and knowing ESPN, they'll cut away from my race to watch Barry Bonds get walked, but if you can't make it to Indy by tomorrow afternoon, check your local listings for ESPN 2 and you can watch me go.