Day 4

Sunday - our last day in Spokane and lots of action from the Phoenix Team.

It was much cooler than previous days - I even put on a long shirt and pants to warm up in. Nothing like the dry heat of previous days.

Nancy was first off in the W45 1500m. After a slow start Nancy decided after the first lap she'd had enough jogging and quickly opened up a 20-30 meter lead. She bravely managed to hold the lead until the last few meters of the race when she was finally over taken by Mary Thane to finish in second place with a time just a tad under 5 mins of 4:59.95.

W45 1500 Meter Run
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  Name                     Age Team                    Finals
================================================================
1 Mary Thane               W45 Missoula, MT           4:58.49
2 *Nancy Tinari            W49 Canada                 4:59.95
3 Carmen Ayala-Troncoso    W49 Austin, TX             5:04.51

Dave Reed "The Canadian" came back from a disappointing 800m on Saturday to run a very strong M50 1500m finishing in 5th place with a time of 4:36.98 - missing a medal by only 3 secs.

M50 1500 Meter Run
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  Name                     Age Team                    Finals
================================================================
1 Paul Fragua              M51 Albuquerque, NM        4:33.10
2 Terry Howell             M52 Santa Barbara, CA      4:33.53
3 David Cannon             M52 Seattle, WA            4:33.58
4 Rob Duncanson            M53 Trabuco Canyon, CA     4:34.34
5 *Dave Reed               M54 Canada                 4:36.98

I finished 3rd in the M40 1500m with a time of 4:19.43 secs. I was pleased to get the bronze as I felt like dropping out after 600m since my arms and legs felt very heavy. I was told by George after the race he could hear me breathing heavily from where he was sat in the stands (and no I wasn't letching after some good looking Californian girl!).

M40 1500 Meter Run
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  Name                     Age Team                    Finals
================================================================
1 Kevin Forde              M44 Philadelphia, PA       4:10.78
2 Sean Messiter            M42 Bellingham, WA         4:14.52
3 *Warren McCulloch        M42 Canada                 4:19.43
4 Scott Pesch              M41 Eureka, CA             4:22.04

Next up was our speeder Kim Ross in the F45 200m. Kim powered through the line against a strong headwind in a PB/PR (depending if you are English or North American) of 27.53 seconds. Winning the Bronze medal in a World class field is quite an achievement and well deserved for Kim as we all know how hard she trains.

W45 200 Meter Dash
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  Name                     Age Team                    Finals  Wind
=====================================================================
1 Joy Upshaw-Margerum      W47 Los Altos Hills, CA      26.52  -0.6
2 Jai Black                W46 San Diego, CA            26.75  -0.6
3 *Kim Ross                W47 Port Moody, BC           27.53  -0.6
4 Liz Palmer               W48 Folsom, CA               27.87  -0.6

Kim finished off the day helping the Canadian W40-49 team win the 4x100m relay and spanking our gracious US hosts in the process :)

And that my friends, was that!

Final Phoenix Medal totals:

2 x Silver - Nancy 800/1500
3 x Bronze - Warren 800/1500, Kim 200
1 x Canadian Record - Kim W45 100

I am very proud of all our efforts and must say that I had an extremely enjoyable time with my team mates. It's not often you get to spend so much much time with such great people as George, Nancy, Dave and Kim and I will cherish this trip for a very long time. Special thanks go out to George for dedicating all his time looking after us, humouring us and just being there for us. Thanks also to Dave and George, for driving us safely there and back (even if there were a few "white knuckle" moments!).

Woz