Senior Olympian Sprinter

Last weekend was the big indoor meet in Winston-Salem, NC.  A great turn out of around 1000 athletes made for some very solid competition and a lot of new world records.   I competed for the SoCal track team and we did not win the team competition this meet, as we did in Spokane.  Our group was down several competitors due to injuries and various other reason.  We had a very small group, but we did manage to score fourth in the team competition and score a lot of gold medals int he process.   I already blogged about the people in the meet and this entry will be basically the nuts of bolts of the competition for me.  I am 62 this year and right in the middle of my age group and I signed up for the 60, 200, 400 and High Jump and also competed in 2 relays--4 x 200 and 4 x 400.  I did not make the 60 finals and ran 7 th in the 400.  I ran pretty good in the 400--65.65-- but did not really seem to have any real juice at the end of the 2 l...

I participated in the USATF Masters Indoor National meet last weekend in Winston-Salem, NC.   It was good meet for me and I will add the details of the results in another post later this week.  What I want to reflect on here is the quality of people in that building.   I am just so impressed with the high level of competition and caring for each other that goes on for 3 days.  Hug and Cry Area for Awards  There were around 1000 competitors for the event, and with families and officials, generally 500 to 2000 people were in the building during the times the track was open. It was not completely full at JDL Fast Track, but a really good crowd. North Carolina passed some very hateful and just plain repressive legislation a few years back concerning rest room usage and anything that did not meet the "hateful Jesus" religion that they were  promoting.   The NBA pushed back and moved their All Star Game location and I think this may hav...

A couple weeks ago I scheduled a little racing in Racine, Wisconsin at Carthage University field house.  Wisconsin USATF was having an all comers meet and I wanted a final tune up before the USATF Nationals in early March to test my training and get in some live racing.  Linda and I were originally going to fly into Milwaukee on Friday and race on Sunday and fly home on the Monday morning direct flight.   On Saturday we would visit our grand daughter  and on Sunday watch the Super Bowl with the newlyweds in Milwaukee.   A few days before we were going to leave, Linda had an opportunity to baby sit our grand daughter for the following  week and she decided to take Betty and Linsi up on that offer to watch June all week.    We changed our plans around and drove to Milwaukee instead and Linda would have a vehicle all week to get around.  When we left Nashville it was a nice winter day of 50 degrees and pleasant and just a few hours N...

A couple of weeks ago I had a 3 day business meeting in Port Saint Lucie, Florida. The area is on the Atlantic side about half way between Daytona and Fort Lauderdale and we had access to Jenson Beach with a 15 minute drive!   I love running on the beach.  I get to look at the stride length and see how well my stride is doing and check  evenness  from side to side.  Some may think this is anal retentive--it is-but it is helpful to gain some knowledge on your body reacts to the running motion and uneven surfaces...sand.    I worked on some starts to see how my step length was changing and it does take about 15 meters to get completely stretched out and full stride.   I did four starts in a 50 meters stretch of hard sand and in each attempt the steps were identical.   The last one was a little different, but I was getting tired and it showed with a half step shorter at the end.  The body lets you know how much...

Linda and I traveled to Chicago for Christmas and visited our oldest and his girlfriend and after two nights in the windy City we got to visit our wonderful grand daughter --June. We dined on Beef Wellington on Christmas- a first for me and enjoyed it thoroughly.   The highlight of the trip was visiting June at her house.   She had been at Grandma's for a couple of days and had been through  a lot of Christmas already.   But, she rose the occasion and helped us celebrate it one more time.    Linda and I gave the family a karaoke machine for a present and that was a cool gift.  After loading several Disney songs and some of Betty and Linda's favorites on the machine, off they went.   June was just mesmerized by the entire scene and was right up front watching the show.    She loves music and eventually will be putting on her own show in a year or two.   I have a picture on my phone of Ju...

It is time to mark dates on the calendar for next season.  The next race on the calendar is an indoor meet in Winston-Salem on January 20. I have started my prep work with weights and some indoor running.  My soreness level has definitely increased after taking off several months from  racing and running.  I have been doing pilates to stay flexible, running about on a week or two on a tread mill, but little else.  I did in the meantime finish the bathroom redo and it looks marvelous.  That is part of our attempt to start running a bed n breakfast here in Brentwood, TN.  We are going to connect this bathroom with a bedroom for a nice little suite. Linda does the cooking and feeds them and we hope it can work out.   With the hard work done and living in transition and dust, we will move into the government phase of the project where we get the permits and other paperwork squared away.  Even if we cannot get ...

I ran in my annual--you are a sprinter stupid- reminder race on Thanksgiving morning at the Cool Springs mall area.   My gym--Prairie Life Fitness was one of the sponsors this year and it started from their facility.  This change was a huge improvement. I could warm up inside on their track and leave my stuff in a locker and not have to worry.  I travel heavy and with the parking situation--I parked three blocks away--a locker made life much simpler.   Race morning was clear and frosty and about 3000 runners showed up for the annual fundraiser put on by Grace Works Ministries.  They make a lot on money on this event and they are glad to see you.  The Grace Works staff is very gracious and do say thanks many times during the event.  I am actually glad to help them out.   Organization was very good and this year they added a 10 K event, so a 5K and 10 K were ongoing on slightly different trails at the same time.  The finish lin...