Tyson Gay breaks U.S. 100 meter record.

Oh Scotty. Making the blog via your braggadocio. I'm kidding. When I was in Santa Barbara last week my cousin Scott was regaling us with memories of his receiving days on the Wisconsin State Championship football team in New Berlin (he's like 26). That (yawn) - along with the following story - got me thinking about when I was in my prime physically, and those moments when I basked in my own "Glory Days".

EUGENE, Ore., Saturday, June 28 - Double sprint world champion Tyson Gay set an American record of 9.77 seconds, making him the third-fastest man in history behind

Jamaica's Asafa Powell (9.74) and Usain Bolt (9.72). Gay, whose previous best was 9.84, topped Maurice Greene's American record of 9.79. Tim Montgomery's 9.76 and Justin Gatlin's 9.77 were wiped out of the record books because of doping bans. "I'm not worried about the record," Gay said. "I'm planning on going faster."

So while we're on the subject of track and field, you may be unaware that my sport of choice in high school. Track. Waterford High. Yep - one-man sport. Didn't wanna risk any injuries that might compromise my hurdling ability. 120 yard highs, 330 yard lows, mile relay and long jump were my main events. And I dominated the lows. My brother - who was a freshman when I was a senior - ran the same events. I believe his best high hurdle time was a hair quicker than mine. You'll have to ask him.

I dated our statistician - Betty Vitale - who coined the nicknamed, "The Greek" (later shortened by Coach Cameron Bruce to "Greek"). She said I looked like a Greek god when I ran. No shit - her words. I took a few things to storage a couple weeks ago and happened upon a small box containing my track medals. Not a lot - we didn't have many opportunities to collect medals in those days - but a few. Let's take a peak into Ye Old Memory Treasure Chest, shall we?

1) 1st place Conference Relays, 300 yard high hurdle shuttle; these were held at Waterford, 2) 1st place Conference Relays, 600 yard low hurdle shuttle - both 1982, senior year; 3) 1981 Case Invitational, 2nd place, 1600 yard relay. Shuttles are when you have three guys on each team. The first guy takes off running and at the end of his leg, the second man is waiting and he takes off, etc. My junior year (1981) we dominated shuttles as our best guy, Dan Hewitt, a senior, was one of the top hurdlers in the state of Wisconsin. Fast.

1) 1981 Conference Relays, 1st place, high hurdle shuttle relay; 2) low hurdles - may be 2nd but there's no writing on the back; 3) 2nd low hurdles - the writing is faded on the back but I can make out 1981 Track and Field Championships. I know I have the newspaper articles to check but they're in storage - way in the back.

(*That second medal has to be 1982 Conference Championships...and a very cheap looking medal compared to what they gave in the past - and compared to what I went through to get it. Great story. I was favored to win the 330 yard low hurdles my senior year but a pile-up occurred over the 2nd hurdle. 4 or 5 guys went. I got up and hobbled over the finish line, pretty upset (along with a few other guys). My coach comes flying across the field yelling, "FOUL! FOUL!". Imagine hurdlers colliding with each other...and the hurdles themselves - not pretty. My leg was bleeding so we quickly bandaged it up and I ran back over to re-start the race. I placed 2nd - don't remember how close it was. I blame the injury. My arch-rival from Burlington (Dallas QB Tony Romo's high school) beat me. However, I finished with the best time over-all in the conference and throughout all of Racine County (see Journal-Times medal below).

NOTE: I don't care what anyone says, of all the sprint events, the 330 yard lows are the toughest event in track. Anyone I've talked to agrees. No argument. It's a fricken sprint with barriers. Try it sometime.

The mother lode. MVP my senior year, 1982. Also Co-Captain with Ned Zoelle - who I haven't seen pretty much since then and can't figure out why. "NED! If you read this, email me!".

Racine Journal-Times 1982 - Named All Conference and All County with the best time in the 330 yard low hurdles for 1982 = 39.6. That's right...I beat fast black guys from Racine Park, Racine Case and Racine Horlick. Suckaaaaas!

Another fun story. In the summer of 1997 I trained (somewhat) for the All Iowa Games, an Olympic-style competition for amateur athletes. All the events are based on age - I was 33 at the time. Remember, a lot had changed since 1982. Low hurdle heights were raised and the 330 yard LH were now the 400 meter LH. It's a tad longer.

So we're all sitting around the starting line shooting the shit and the starter official approaches us and right off the bat says, "I think we can all agree that you guys want the hurdle height dropped down to where it was at in 1982...right?". No argument from us. But we still had to run extra 100 meters or so to run, including 2 or 3 extra hurdles.

Long story short, you know that WALL people talk about in track? I hit it with two hurdles left. That was tough. Had it all on tape too but like a jackass I mistakenly erased it. I placed 2nd in my age class (I think there were 9 of us). The guy who beat me was in AS GOOD of shape as he must've been in high school. Like 3% body fat on the guy - a white dude. Listen, the time he beat me with that day in Dubuque, Iowa was equivalent to my best time of 39.6 - in 1982 - at 330 yards.

Can't go back but we love to live'm again, don't we? That's OK. It's good to remember every once in a while.