TrackTown, USA: The 44th Annual Prefontaine Classic meet was held at Historic Hayward Field this afternoon. An international field of stellar athletes gave us their best today, as they always do at this early-in-the-season event. The meet was shown live on NBC, and if you didn't watch it, or tape it... well, I am very sorry for you.
The meeting included two men's mile races. The first mile had all but one racer breaking the 4 minute barrier, and the one not breaking 4 minutes is in high school).

Our seats were directly in front of the triple jump pit, so we had great views of the competition all afternoon.

Mary and Steve had second row seats, so had great close-ups views of all the athletes. Mary snapped this photo of Duck alum Devon Allen (lane 8) in the 110m hurdles - with her phone.


My girl-crush, Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba, holder of the world record in the 1500m, ran the 5000m this afternoon. Of course she won. She is Dibaba. Below, she is pictured urging eventual second-place finisher, Letesenbet Gidey (also of Ethiopia) to pass her. I assume Dibaba needed a bit of a rest? Convincing her countrywoman to let her draft behind for a while? Must be nice.

The best (and most anticipated) race of the meet is the Bowerman Mile. Named after the legendary war hero, distance coach, and the man who help make jogging a mainstream activity around the world, Bill Bowerman, the field is always comprised of the best 4-lappers in the entire whole wide world.



Oregon native (but Texas Longhorn) Ryan Crouser won the heavily-loaded (no pun intended) shot put this afternoon, with a mighty heave of 70 feet, 11 inches. Holy Cow.

Not only was Crouser's victory amazing and impressive to the fans, it was worthy of the "Athlete of the Meet" prize. Yeah, Ryan!

Another amazing two hours! I love this meet. If you don't feel good after reading my little teeny re-cap, watch this video:
Now, go outside and play.
See meet results here.
Until my next update, I remain, your "made to play" correspondent.
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