100m - 1st: 12.3s headwind
200m - 5th: 25.5s
long jump - 4.01m
winning my first race was certainly good for my confidence. still nervous about my hamstring, I took it a bit easy out of the blocks, and it wasn’t until about the halfway mark that I thought to myself “gee, I’m second. I might as well win this thing”. wasn’t sure if I had won it when I crossed the line. second was 12.4s.
it was a beautiful warm day, but there was a pretty stiff headwind. not sure if it was being measured, but some of the more experienced athletes estimated it might have been around 2-3m/s. seems like sub 12 might not be too far away (fingers crossed).
I had a bit of a half hearted attempt at the long jump to earn the club some points. just took 2 jumps and treated it as a warm up for the 200m which was straight after. I need to work out my run up before next time. both of my jumps were about 45cm back from the line.
I was a little apprehensive about the 200m, as coming into it my best time at training was 28s. I found myself running in a much faster race, too. I started out in lane 7, so at least I was second for a while . felt the hamstring tightening up about 50m from the end, so I eased up and cruised home. didn’t cost me a place but it probably cost me sub 25. then again, I might also have saved myself an injury. I think I was actually happier with my 200, just because I had lower expectations for it.
all in all, I really enjoyed my first round of competition…
Congratulations. With 12.3 speed in the 100m, you should easily be able to jump 5m in the long jump with a proper-length run up and a little bit of practice.
ok, so last weeks result in the 100m wasn’t as good as they told me on the day :o , so I’m not exactly going to start popping champaign corks over achieving my first target of the season (sub25s 200m), but I’m still pretty pleased with how I ran, especially after the awful week I had.
didn’t pull up so well after it, though. had a bit of a lactic attack and started coughing, which still hasn’t gone away. that could actually be related to my whiplash, though.
jogged through a 400m at warm up pace just to register some points for the club. also had a try at the triple, but after jarring my heel on my first attempt I decided to sit it out. think I’ll stick to the long jump as my third major event.
the clubs top 3 sprinters were all out injured today (all low 11’s, usually), so I found myself running the third leg of the premier event. I was a bit nervous in the lead up as I had never done a baton change before, but I think it all went pretty smoothly, even if it wasn’t fast.
here are some random snaps from the day:
adjusting the blocks
waiting for the starter
just after the hand-off in the relay
now I’ve got to wait a couple of days until the electronic times are released. how annoying… :rolleyes:
the electronic results seem to be through already. once again, there’s good news and bad news. my time only went up to 24.7s, but the wind was measured as a 3.1m headwind. curses! back to the drawingboard.
the relay time is exactly the same, at this point, but it seems that we actually came second. don’t know where I got the idea we finished 4th…
true, I’m on the right track, but I still haven’t quite done it with a legal wind. this week was one of my best chances to do it because there was no 100m event before it, so I was fresh.
nevermind, it’s not like I’m devastated by it. I know I can go faster in the future…
yeah, I worked out pretty quickly that the triple jump is a high risk event for me. one jump at half speed and I had to ice up my heel. I’ll stick to the long jump, methinks. the thing is, the club is very big on everyone having a go at fringe events to bump up club points. I think that’s fine, but I won’t ever put my overall performance in my main events at risk.
I am taking my weights work veeeery slowly - just easing my way back into it - but I can already feel the old sense of power returning to my body…
I’m staggered that in this day & age, club officials are still prepared to risk the health of athletes in the pursuit of club points.
I’m involved in an amateur club as an acting manager and our club policy is that no-one is talked into or pressured to compete in an event they feel uncomfortable with.
If the club officials need triple jumpers go out and find them don’t ask athletes who don’t train for event to risk injury for the sake of a few points.
There’s only one comp a year that we strive to win as a club and leading up to it, I search far and wide to find specialists for the field events. If I desperately need a triple jumper I will ask someone to put their hand up. Normally someone does and leading into that comp, just so they can be in the team, they have a few practices before the actual day.
But none of my leading sprinters would be compelled to jump or throw, that’s for sure.
after a blistering start I was leading at the halfway mark when I felt a twinge in my hamstring. 10m later I felt it go again, only it was a painful grabbing sensation. I limped and hobbled my way to the finish line on one leg, basically carried by momentum. after shaking hands with the winner and swearing at myself a few times I registered my result (12.1s hand timed. way off, again) and went straight to the first aid room.
I’ve had plenty of neural hamstring problems in the past, but this is the first time I have had a proper pull while running. it was quite unnerving because I was going at full speed and I feel as though the act of stopping suddenly would probably have put more stress on the muscle than to stop gradually as I did.
this is a big disappointment for me because I was just starting to get on a roll. the way I ran for the first half of the race yesterday I feel like I would have finished at around 12.2s if I’d run it out. the guy who passed me when it went finished with 12 flat. but then again, perhaps that is exactly what the trouble was. my body just wasn’t strong enough to hold together at that speed yet.
a rather uneventful days play for me personally. deemed not quite ready to run by my chiropractor, I came only as a thrower. had a bit of fun puting around the shot and spinning the discus, but when the call came to take one for the team I found myself as anchor for the 4x100m second relay team. there has been a spate of injuries amoungst our sprinters and we were one runner short of two teams, so I took the baton from a 14 year old and trotted out a leasurely 100 for the points. the result was a pathetic time but as many points as we could have hoped for.
. felt the hamstring tightening up about 50m from the end, so I eased up and cruised home. didn’t cost me a place but it probably cost me sub 25. then again, I might also have saved myself an injury. I think I was actually happier with my 200, just because I had lower expectations for it.
You achieved your season goal of sub 25sec and it was into quite a strong headwind.
