This web log was created to keep you up to date with the athletic pursuits of Blake Boldon. It will be updated regularly with competition schedules, results, and photos.

Friday, July 25, 2008

Memorial Leon Buyle (Oordegem Flanders Cup Meeting)

The trip has definitely gotten a lot better. I'm over my sickness and (mostly) recovered from last Sunday's 1500. I hope to put together a more detailed post about the trip and my experiences but I have been very lazy about updating this regularly in the last year. I'll post the website for the meet and I'm sure the results will be available before I'm back to the internet to post them. I'll work on a "Belgium Recap" post on my way home or in the days to follow. Here's the website: http://www.memorialbuyle.be/indexEN.php

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Running Times Article & Flotrack Euro-tour

I hope that all the mess from Eugene gets left behind soon, but there is a great Running Times article about what happened. Here's the link: http://www.runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=13776&PageNum=1 Also, check out the podcast at the end for excerpts from the interview. The dorms that I'm staying in here in Leuven play host to a number of other elite runners. A couple of my good friends from Canada are staying in a building a few hundred meters from mine but there are a lot of Americans. Along with the crew is Ryan from Flotrack. I haven't seen any of the videos but I'm sure that I don't make any appearances. I've talked with Ryan casually but I'm sure the main thing that would come up in an interview would be the trials and that's not a priority for me right now so that's what it is. Ryan seems like a great guy and I'm sure that the videos he's made are pretty typical stuff about the day-to-day life here in the Leuven dorms. Here's a link: http://track.flocasts.org/videos/coverage/view/234049-flotrack-euro-adventures-season-2 I might be racing tomorrow at another Flander's Cup Meeting in Brasschaat. I'll post results if it happens.

Monday, July 21, 2008

KBC Night of Athletics 5000 Results, Huesden Belgium

Here's a link to the results from last night: http://www.timetronics.be/results/nacht2008/event050h01.html I realize that 13:50 isn't something to boast about but I'm really proud of my effort. It's my second fastest 5k of my life despite being significantly less fit than I was back in April when I ran 13:46. I hope to post more about the trip in general sometime today but I think there is a small group making a day trip to Brussels in a little bit so I'm going to get my things together in time for that.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

No go in Gent

After warming up I knew that there was no way that I could race. It's been a long year and at this point, I'm ready for it to be 2009. It's like a singer preparing for a year for a series of audtions and traveling accross the Atlantic Ocean only to lose his before he got the chance to sing. My whole torso and throat hurt from coughing and I'm really tired from 2 nights spent coughing. I didn't want to run myself into the ground today and I'm still holding out hope that I can recover by mid-week and race the 5000 next Sunday. Hopefully I'll have better news in a day or two.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Leuven, Belgium

For now I won't go into much detail about the Olympic Trials and the drama involved except to say that despite at least one public opinion by a USATF committee member, I am not "slinging accusations of unjustice." I also don't prescribe to the theory that a single shoe company controls the entire entry process. What I do know is that it is a flawed system to say the least. Hopefully the things that happened this year will lead to some changes and improvements so that athletes won't have to go through what I went through again. And for those people who have asked for my opinion on the men's 10,000 I will give you a short answer. I think it is great that Adam Goucher was allowed to run because it at least demonstrates that somebody actually knows how the appeals process works and Adam did add to the race. I feel that it should be an inclusive championship when athletes have the B standard and their addition won't alter the number of heats or the schedule of the meet. The key is that that USATF needs to consider all appeals equally and provide legitimate rationale to those who are denied. Whatever rules that the USATF has in place need to be followed consistently. That's more than I wanted to say but hopefully that answers whatever questions are floating around out there. Right now I'm sitting in my dorm room here in Leuven watching it rain and thinking about going for a run. I left Ames on Tuesday and arrived here on Wednesday afternoon. I met up with Sean O'Brien of the Oregon Track Club on the flight from Amsterdam to Brussels and we've gone for a couple runs here in town. Yesterday, Anthony Gallo arrived and we were out in the town today. The dorms here are a good set up and there are plenty of English speaking athletes staying all in the same complex. Strangely, since I landed I have gotten sick. I had a little bit of an itch in my throat and a cough before I left home but it has developed into a full-blown cold. I slept more than 13 hours the first night I was here but yesterday I still had a sore throat and a tight chest. Last night I fell asleep pretty easily only to be woken up by some pretty bad coughs a few minutes later. I tried everything I know for falling back asleep but mostly laid in bed coughing until the sun was up. Then fatigue took over and I was unconscious & coughing rather than actually sleeping. I drug myself out of bed to take a look outside and I realized that it was 2:30 in the afternoon. I'm loaded up on orange juice, vitamin C and anything else that I can think of. I need to get a couple good nights of sleep because I'm set to run a 3k on Sunday. So far, this trip is par for the course in 2008. Right when I feel like fitness is coming together and I have a couple great races lined up something happens to change the plan entirely. In case I don't find ambion enough to post before I start racing here are links to information on the meets that I have planned: Flanders Cup Meeting, Gent, Belgium; Sunday, July 13 - 3000 meters http://www.rcgent.be/ (go to 'Wedstrijden' and click on 'Flanders Cup') KBC Night of Athletics, Huesden, Belgium; Sunday, July 20 - 5000 meters http://www.sport.be/kbcnacht/2008/eng/ Memorial Buyle Flanders Cup Meeting, Oordogem, Belgium; Saturday, July 26 - 1500 meters http://www.memorialbuyle.be/

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Bridge Mile Picture - 2008

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Olympic Trials Insanity

For those of you who looked for my name in the results or on the tv, I'm sorry to disappoint. In a twist of events I was not admitted to the field. I'm home from Eugene and I'm exhausted. There is still a lot going on related to my appeal but based on advice from my attorney I won't go into details right now. What I will do is provide an interesting read posted by a very famous and mainstream running journalist. Mr. Amby Burfoot is writing a blog for RunnersWorld and I'm sure this will be a continually developing story. http://tracktrials.runnersworld.com/2008/07/its-a-slow-day.html