On the 25th I got back to running the 800m in Kaunas, Lithuania after a two week break of running 400's. I left on Monday and flew into Lithuania's biggest city, Vilnius, after a brief 'run' through the airport in Prague, Czech Republic. I arrived at the airport and just as planned, someone from the meet was waiting holding a sign for the meet. That happiness was short-lived when he told me we had to wait 2 and a half hours for more people to arrive. So I sat down and waited... 2 and a half hours later as the plane is landing, he gets a phone call where we learn that we need to wait longer to pick another guy up that had not arrived the day before. But I would never have guessed who just got off the first plane we were waiting on. My old teammate at Oregon, Eric Mitchum. So the rest of the 6 hours I was at the airport Eric and I got to catch up and trade traveling stories. After an hour and 30 min drive to Lithuania's second largest city, Kaunas, we checked into our hotel. Eric and I had them switch some rooms around so we could room with each other. It almost seemed like we were at a meet back in college in the US.

Lithuania only gained its independece from Russia in 1990. And it looked pretty much like I thought a place like Lithuania would. It was definately not in the sort of shape that most western European cities were. There were alot of shabby looking..everything. But the hotel was great, the food was great, and the track was only 300m away. The day before the meet and the first half of meet day was stormy and rainy. Luckily it cleared up for the main part of the meet. There was supposedly a pacer for my race but no one I asked knew who he was or how fast he was going. So at the gun I decided I was going to take it out like I did at the Pre Classic and see what happened. I had the 4th fastest PR and fastest season best of everyone in the field. And seeing that most Europeans like to run more even splits for their two laps I knew no one would follow me out if I got out in 24 for the first 200m. Well, no body tried to go with me. After the first turn everyone was behind me so I still don't know if there was a pacer.

I came through the bell in around 49.5 which is by far the fastest I've ever ran my first lap before. I heard the bell sound again about 20 meters past the starting line so I knew I had a big lead. I worked on maintaining my pace through the next 200m and with 150m to go I took a glance over my left shoulder to see the entire pack 40m behind me. It startled me so much I did a double-take. I knew my body wasn't going to hold this 1:45 pace and with 80 to go I hit a huge brick wall. By that time my lead had been cut in half. I tried to stay relaxed and focus on the finish line. 2 or 3 times I took glances back to see how fast they were gaining on me. With 20m to go I put everything I had into getting to the finish line and hit the finish a stride ahead of second place. My time was 1:48.96, which means I ran about 59 for my second lap.

The last 100m was the ugliest I've ever had in a race but I held on for the win, my second in as many weeks. After coming to a stop after the finish line (which was only about 3 steps past it) I got a big bear hug from the meet mascot, a big gray bull, and a rose. I was led to the awards preparation room and then back onto the track for my ceremony. They gave me another rose and a gift that will be a nice paper weight. I then got to watch a few other Americans compete, including Eric run his second best time ever while finishing second to Ohio State grad Joel Brown.

Back at the hotel after the meet they had a small party. All of the important people from the meet were there in suits and ties. I'm assuming most were promoters, managers, etc. But not too far into the party we learned that the mayor of the city as well as the president of Lithuania were there. That explained the couple guys with CIA-looking earpeaces wondering around. I got to introduce myself to the president and shake his hand and thank him for all of the hospitality. And I got my picture taken with him. They traveling day back to Gent was very smooth. I had a couple hours layover in Prague and got to do a little shopping.