Senior Olympian Sprinter

My daughter was curious about her ancestry--her Mom was adopted and little is known from that side of the ladder-- and I know a lot about my ancestors. So  we both did the DNA testing and my results were finished this last week.   I thought I was mostly from the UK and a bit of France, but it was a little different from that.  But my ancestry is 37% Great Britain, 29% Scandinavia, 14% Ireland, 9% Greece, Italy,  6% Iberian Peninsula---99% Europe.   The Vikings invaded Scotland, Ireland and England and that explains most of the DNA.   Ancestry.com had some interesting maps that indicated the folks with similar DNA settled a narrow belt from Pittsburgh. PA to Indianapolis, IN.  I broke out of this range years ago, but the vast majority of my kin is still in that area.   This mapping was interesting info about how the immigration of the US was actually done as the West opened up to the settlers. ...

It has been two weeks since we finished up in Baton Rouge and I had a calf muscle that was quite tender.   After two weeks of no running and no exercise that flexes the left calf muscle, things are much improved.  I made it to the gym today and worked on my core and upper body and just gingerly stretched my calf to see how it is healing.  I think I tore my soleus muscle and it is healing nicely and it is probably 95%, BUT I am waiting another two weeks before trying it out.  It is difficult to have the discipline to lay off.  Two more weeks of rest for the injury-- and that is final.   I have a funeral to attend this week near Baltimore, Md.  My Dad's brother married a women from that area and she died at the age of 78 last weekend.  I will fly over and attend. It has been nice to get some rest from working out, but it can get a little boring at times.   To cut the boredom, Linda and I have started to repaint the front fence.  I have...

Everybody has a scoreboard, whether it  is dollars earned and accumulated, trophies won, fish caught, golf score,  square feet in your house, grand kids,  ACT score.........  Masters athletes have their own scoreboard, and it is a Master Ranking web site that accumulates times from all the meets globally and compiles them for comparison.  I found this site last year and it keeps up with all the big meets and any USATF event as well as some of the NSGA events.   You get an overall ranking versus the US or global competition and an 1 to 100% score to rank you against a hypothetical 100% maximum.  I have been watching my progress on this site and I think this is where I should finish the year as a 60 year old in the outdoor season.  50 meters,  91.55%, 7.33 seconds, 14th in world, 12th in US.  The US is basically the only country to run this event. 60 meters, 93.63, 8.26 seconds, second in world, first in US.  The ...

A couple months (or years) ago I wrote a blog about "How Big is Your Stage?" and last weekend it was pretty darn big.  That blog was basically yelling at my kids to challenge themselves and see how they do when they near the top of their professions.  They have done well and I guess I also heeded my own advice as well.   How big was the stage this last week--the biggest one in the USA for Masters Track athletes and I would like to think I held my own.   The Nationals is a 4 day meet and I was entered in the 100, 200 , 400 meters and the 4 x 100 and 4 x 400 relays.   If things went well I would race 8 races.   Prelims and finals of the 1,2 and 4 and each relay would be a final.  That is a lot of racing anyway you cut it.  It ended up with only 7 races needed and I was really glad to miss the one we did not have to race.  Day 1--My first race was the 400 prelim and I just needed to run about a 64 or 65 to make the finals...

It is humid when you are running and water is flying off your finger tips and when you are resting it runs off your nose and drips off your belly as well.   I ran tonight and was working on some arm swings and finish line approaches and water was flying everywhere.  The humidity was really high tonight and it is amazing how much water your body can produce.   I was running without a shirt and just had water dripping off everything.   Next week in Baton Rouge I expect the same amount of water flying. I ran a 400 meters yesterday with the all the gear to see how I am progressing.  I timed it as a 64.4 which should put me in the finals at the Nationals next week.   That time is pretty solid and I was not tying up on the final stretch, although the wind was to my back at the finish.   All my injuries seem to be under control now and I am desperately trying not to round up anything new.   My training seems to be spo...

Last weekend the State Finals Track meet for NSGA  was held in Franklin, TN.   As you know from my previous blog, my back was hurting.  But I just shut up and ran. And good things did  happen.  I won the 100 meter dash for the first time in 5 or 6 tries at the State Finals.  It was getting so frustrating, that a couple of years I did not even sign up to run it.  That was how bad my prospects of winning were.   But this year I finally broke through. Thomas Siegle beat me last year and we had raced earlier this year and we were basically shadows of the other when we get to the finish. This year it was my turn and I finally took a gold in the 100!   The victory margin was 0.03 seconds or less than a foot.   I got a great start and had a little bit of a lead and within 20 meters Thomas was on my hip and it  went this way to the finish.  Absolutely neck and neck.  Linda videoed the event ...

Nobody wants to hear it!    It have had one of my more difficult weeks while my eye on the Tennessee State Finals this weekend.   I will fill you in shortly, but I need to offer up some hope before I dwell in sorrow and agony on end.  I am also going to use ever bad pun and saying ever created. I remember many years back the late great Dale Earnhardt Sr had a massive wreck in Nascar and broke his shoulder.  6 days later he won on the road coarse in Watkin Glen--he ran away with the race.  He had absolutely no business driving and kicked their butts plus he had never won on  road course.  Mind over matter for this one.  A couple years prior to that Ricky Rudd had a wreck at Daytona that should have killed him.  His eyes were swollen shut and 6 days later, he taped his eyes open and he won the next race.  Nikki Lauda almost was incinerated in a wreck in Germany in the early 70's and came back after recovering (partially...