Farewell to The Track

Fond Memories of the Pakenham Racecourse

The Pakenham Racecourse is more to me than just a race track – it is a place where as kids we spent Christmas day playing hide and seek after lunch at Nana Bourke’s (the house was on the racecourse grounds), it is where during school holidays I went with dad early in the morning when he took his horses to train so I could have Nana Bourke cook bacon and eggs for breakfast on her wood stove, it is where we celebrated family 21sts, weddings, family reunions and wakes. And of course there were the races; for me the Pakenham Picnic Cup on New Year’s Day was the most fun – crowded racecourse, kids races down the home straight (uncle Hughie as the starter), then when we were tired and too hot, back to Nana Bourke’s house to watch the Australian Open (when it was at Kooyong).

So when I heard this year’s Pakenham Cup will be the last, it brought back fond memories and a tinge of sadness. To me, the races at Pakenham was catching up with the Bourke cousins, talking our way into the Committee Room so dad or one of the uncles could get us a lemon squash, cousin Paul and brother Anthony standing on their tippy toes and deepening their voices to try put on a bet at the tote window and listening to uncle Gavin’s bad jokes. I can’t ever recall having to pay to get in. If there weren’t some tickets at Nana’s house, we usually knew someone at the gate who would let us in.



Brien Bourke Family at the 2005 Pakenham Cup

 The last Pakenham Cup I went to was in 2005 when my family was visiting from America and mum and the Bourke cousins arranged a few marquees - nearly everybody was there and my wife and daughters met many of the extended family for the first time. That was the last opportunity I had to see so many of the Bourke family together, including uncle David, and it will be fondly remembered.

I am sure for the last Cup at The Track this year, there will be another great gathering of the Bourke clan for a final farewell. What a fairytale ending it would have been if the old family war horse, Another Prelate, could win it after an unlucky second place last year! The elder Bourkes know only too well that  fairytales rarely happen and it looks like the horse's schedule didn't work out this year. Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it, but if ‘The Prelate’ runs, now Anthony is old enough to legally bet, maybe I’ll get him to put a few bucks on for me.

Lance Armstrong - Hero or Villian?

What is to be gained from the downfall of Lance Armstrong?

The amazing feats of Lance Armstrong in recovering from life threatening cancer and then winning seven Tour De France titles has lifted the profile of cycling in the US and around the world to a mainstream sport, introducing millions to the sport and making billons for suppliers to the industry. Lance did to cycling what Tiger did to golf. Not only did Lance make a huge impact on the popularity of cycling, he has also raised over $470M for cancer research and surely inspired many cancer sufferers by his amazing feats to fight through the illness.

Why then when Armstrong has never tested positive for an illegal substance during his illustrious career and is now in retirement, has the US Anti-Doping Agency continued to relentlessly pursue charges that he used performance enhancing drugs, even when he has not been found guilty after a 2-year federal investigation and when the International Cycling Union claims his innocence? What is Travis Tygart, Chief Executive at USDA, trying to achieve in discrediting Lance Armstrong of his cycling success? ''It's a sad day for all of us who love sport and our athletic heroes,'' Travis Tygart, chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said. ''It's yet another heartbreaking example of how the win-at-all-costs culture, if left unchecked, will overtake fair, safe and honest competition.''

First of all, who really believes that cycling competitions such as the Tour De France are mostly clean but for a few cheats? Recent winners Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador have been stripped of their titles due to positive drug tests. What about many more positive tests of prominent cyclists in The Tour. Many of the guys who placed behind Lance have subsequently been banned for drugs, so who should his titles now go to? The sport is obviously as dirty as body building and needs to be cleaned up but when Armstrong has tested positive hundreds of times, never had a negative test, and inspired so many young and old athletes and cancer sufferers, what is to be gained by an endless battle by the US Anti-Doping Agency to bring him down? Most will agree that the world is a better place for Lance Armstrong’s cycling career and triumph against cancer. I would love to ask Travis Tygart if he thought the same. I don’t know Travis, but seeing him interviewed on TV tonight, he does not look like he ever was much of an athlete, let alone someone who would understand how much work and sacrifice an elite athlete puts in to getting to that level, with no career to fall back on, dysfunctional personal relationships outside your team mates, where only a select few succeed – something most armchair experts have no idea about.

So let’s say Lance was guilty, and remember he still claims innocence and never tested positive. His winning of seven Tours after life threatening cancer against his main rivals that have almost all actually tested positive is still an amazing feat. You can’t deny this guy is an amazing athlete and an inspiration whatever the case!

I’m not talking about Lance anymore and want to throw a little flack at the ‘lily white’ media. It always amazes me how the media will raise a sporting hero on a pedestal, then when this hero is disgraced for drug use or poor behavior, will be the first to claim astonishment and surprise and throw the guy down the gutter. I don’t know if this is done for a good story or to distance the media from having any prior knowledge of wrong doings. A good reporter has access to inside information and has to know what is going on in a sport, that there are drugs, college football recruiting parties and the like and if they don’t say anything before they are caught, they are gutless to feign ignorance and disgust after the fact.

After fighting the US Anti-Doping Agency witch hunt for years, I can understand how Lance is just tired and not willing to fight any more. He has left a great legacy and if he is stripped of his Tour victories, Lance’s cycling peers know that in his time he was the best there was, drugs or not, and who gives a xxx what Tygart thinks.

Too Much Pressure on Aussie Olympic Athletes?

I have been reading the Aussie press during these Olympics Games to check the performance of the Australian athletes since in the U.S. you will only see an Aussie if he/she is competing against an American and that American is a medal chance. Nothing against the U.S. media as that is probably the case in any country. As the swimming competition is nearly finished, questions are being raised as to why so many of the Aussies are not performing to their potential, why aren’t they excelling on the sport's greatest stage, and why are our world champions settling for silver and bronze?

It is an interesting perspective living in the U.S. and comparing the media coverage of the local athletes leading up to and during the games with what I saw back in Australia. The media coverage of each Aussie medal hope is an order of magnitude greater than most of the U.S. medal prospects. As a result, public exposure and expectations on the Aussie athletes is much greater. These athletes are not like our good tennis players or footballers who are regularly in the media spotlight. Many of these athletes are relatively unknown until they make the Olympic Games, even if they won a World Championships title the previous year. The same can be said for U.S athletes in terms of media experience, but they typically don't get exposed to the pre-Games media analysis and subsequent public expectations in the lead up that you see in Australia.

Australia's success in the Summer Olympics is amazing based on our population. We were sixth on the list of medal winners at Beijing, ahead of much larger developed countries such as France and Japan and only just behind Germany. So why do we continue to put so much pressure on our athletes to succeed? Is it an inferiority complex Australians have, where we feel we have to prove ourselves in the world sporting arena? I heard an interview of Emily Seebohm this morning after she got a silver medal to Missy Franklin in the 100M backstroke. Rather than being happy to win a medal, she said she felt she let everyone down.... Is it fair she has to feel this way? She had trained her heart out I am sure and gave it all she had. If she swam the same time in the final as she did in her semi, she would have won, but I don’t blame that on the poor girl, I think it is the pressure to win, where nothing but gold is a success, that affects Seebohm and others such as James Magnussen and the men’s 4x100M relay team.

Missy Franklin, a 17 year old high school girl from Centennial Colorado, is a perfect contrast to Seebohm. Even though she had won World Championships medals and was in a record number of races for a US female swimmer, there was little pressure on her to bring home lots of gold. There were no predictions on how many medals she would win and being young and in her first Olympics, the media seemed to give her a break and just wished her well. No such leniency on Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, but they have won plenty of medals before and can handle the media (Phelps at least). So the outside pressure on Franklin was minimal and she could race with a clear conscience not concerned about letting down her team, the coaches and the public.


Why have I seen so many Aussies post fastest qualifying times in the semis, then swim slower for a minor medal in the final? Are they swimming under less pressure in the semis where a medal is not at risk, so they perform better? Aussies have traditionally been better underdogs than favorites, probably because they are not burdened by the overwhelming public expectations in the games lead-up. We often see Russian, Chinese and Japanese athletes underperform when they are favorites due to the pressure to succeed on these athletes also.

I believe the U.S. athletes have much less pressure and therefore are more likely to perform to their potential for two main reasons: The first is that there are so many U.S. medal chances and often multiple per event, that the athletes rarely have so much pressure to succeed compared to Australians who only have a limited number of medal opportunities. Related to this point is that in many cases the US athletes’ greatest competition comes in qualifying for the Olympics and they often feel less pressure in the Olympics (see comments from Gymnastics team). The second factor is that in the U.S., Olympic sports are second tier compared to the major US professional sports. For the vast majority of the public, the Olympics are a bridge between the end of the baseball season (for the 95% of fans who's teams are out of World Series contention) and the start of the football season. It is a sad fact that the popularity of the Olympics has gradually fallen in the past 20-30 years, and most medal winners are forgotten within days of the Olympics finishing. When the U.S. Olympic team left for London, most of the medal prospects were still unknowns and by the time the public got to know them through NBC's documentary style coverage, the athletes were largely insulated from any public expectations.

One final point: NBC's coverage continually displays U.S. teammates in the warm up room getting all excited when someone in the pool wins or gets an unexpected medal, and when defeated by a compatriot they are very complimentary and supportive. The team as a whole just seems happy and like a bunch of excited kids on a field trip. It reminds me of competing in Intervarsity athletics which was fun. I am not seeing the Aussie coverage, but wonder if there is the same display of team camaraderie. Or does the media and public pressure have everyone focusing on themselves, missing out on valuable support from teammates and perhaps more importantly the younger athletes are missing out on support and guidance from their more senior teammates.

As long as Australians feel a need to prove ourselves on the world stage, the pressure on Aussie medal prospects is not going to subside in this or future Olympics. So let's face it, there will always be pressure. How do Australian athletes therefore overcome this pressure to be able to perform at their best on the world stage? For a start, I think coaches and team management have to insulate the athletes as much as possible from the outside pressures, and don’t make wild predictions the media to put on even more pressure. Secondly, I think Olympic management should provide assistance via sports psychologists to help the athletes through the games. Maybe is wasn’t psychologists, but Missy Franklin seemed to have almost every minute mapped out for her by team management to carefully guide her through her busy competition schedule. Do the Australian athletes get this assistance? Maybe they do, but I knew athletes who competed in Olympics in Atlanta and Sydney and I don’t know of any real assistance they received to help them prepare for their events. I hope this hasn’t been the case, but if so, it is a huge area for improvement.

After working so hard to get to the Olympics it is a shame to not perform to your full potential because you were too concerned about letting everyone one down…..

Better Luck Next Year....

Even though I had not been back on the track for a few weeks, last Tuesday (August 10th) I thought, what the heck, I'd put the spikes on and see what I could run for a 400M. For a warm up, I ran a few slow laps to take it easy on the archilles, and it felt OK. After stretching, I did a few slow run throughs in spikes and the archilles was still OK. I then started the 400M and while I had no idea what pace I was running, felt pretty good. At 300M I took a glance at my timer (I didn't have a stopwatch so used a small clock with a second counting function) and bloody hell...I had somehow turned the clock off while running, #!$! So I stopped running - no point going on with no time - to conserve effort for another attempt.

I could only wait about 5 minutes as I had to get back to work, so decided to try running 300M instead and see how that went. Archilles still OK. During the first 100M I thought I was going OK, maybe a little heavy in the legs, but it took me 52 seconds.... Terrible! I don't know if I significantly underestimated what it takes at 46 years of age to get in shape for a sub-60 second 400M (probably) or if that first 400M attempt took a lot out of me (perhaps a bit of both). At this point my archilles was sore again and for the next few days my calves as stiff as boads.

Common sense has now prevailed and I would probably risk damaging my ageing frame in trying to do a 400M in less than 2 weeks. I am more determined now though to get my legs in better shape for next year and have a more serious attempt!

Shortest Comeback Ever?

My initial enthusiasm was dampened on Friday when my left archilles started getting sore during warm-up and gradually got worse. I decided after two run-throughs I had better not do any more....
I guess I had been doing my run-throughs (including warm ups) a little too fast for not having run on a track for so long. You really don't put much pressure on your calves and archilles when just jogging.

Yesterday (7/19) my archilles felt better after the weekend so I tried a few slower warm up runs but it gradually got sore again and was quite sore this morning.

So Plan B is I will take the rest of this week off running, relax next week in San Diego on vacation then see what I can do with 4 weeks of traning if the archilles holds up.... I will still hit the speedball in the gym and also do some calf raises to try strengthen the calves and archilles (should have thought of this before).

Lets keep our fingers crossed!

A Sprinting Comeback??

The Goal!

Against my better judgement, I got out on a track on Monday (7/12) for the first time in eleven years with the crazy goal of training for the Colorado Masters 200m and 400m on August 29th. That's right, just under seven weeks to get ready.... Not sure why I am doing it, but it could have something do to with hitting the speedball for  the past five months bringing back memories of the good old sprinting days. Or maybe it has been coaching Hailey's softball team this summer, the first involvement I have had in competitive sport since moving to the US, that has got my competitive juices running again.

So I am going to do two weeks of 120m run-throughs to get my legs used to running a little fast again (at least faster than when I run after the kids) and then run a 400m to see if I can run 55 seconds or less. If I can, I'll keep training for the Masters, if not, I'll possibly give myself more time next year. Is this over ambitious? Maybe, but I am banking on the speedball giving me the lungs for the 400m so that I just need to get my legs conditioned. It will be a good measure of what aerobic fitness you can get from the speedball, because trust me, the only runing I have done in the past few months is a 1.5 mile slow jog with he dogs around the block once every one to two weeks......

Early Progress:
After 6 x 120m run-throughts in flats on Monday and Wednesday my calves are as stiff as boards! But the good news is the rest of the body is holding up well. Knees and hips are OK so far. I have to tell you, running down that straight got my adrenalin running and I had to hold myself back. Sprinting sure beats a bloody jog around the block! My first thought was why don't I also run the 100 m at the Masters? But I should be realistic and with so little training that will surely result in a blown out hammy. Now I mentioned it, I think the last time I sprinted at training in Australia I tore a hammy and I never got any physio, so I probably have a lot of scar tissue down there. I can't wait to get spikes back on, but I must take it easy as I don't have any time to recover from an injury between now and the end of August.