The Senior Nationals started today in Birmingham, Alabama. Linda and I drug in last night after a very exhausting weekend. We had house guests for several nights, hosted a brunch for about 35 to 40 people on Sunday and attended a wedding celbration as well. The Predators kept us interested as well with their great weekend, the town is nuts! By the time we arrived Tuesday night we were on fumes--we drank a lot of coffee just to get to our butts to the hotel. Then it was a quick dinner and to bed.
Today--Wednesday--I drove to the Convention Center and got my credentials so I could race and found out that I had a morning race coming up--50 meters prelim. I had not put that race on my start time list, but I had two hours to get to the track and would run it.
I am going to do a 24 hour flashback for the purpose of making this story more interesting and complete. After my final tune up session Tuesday at the gym, I warmed up and stretched indoors to stay in a nice cool place, I sat down at a table to check my phone after finishing and my left knee basically jumped a tooth and locked up! What? This has happened before , but the timing was just too much. I hobbled to my car and had Linda to crank on it to get it back in place with limited success. At that point, it is "run what you brung". Ice and KT tape were my only remedy at hand.
I made it to the track at Samford University and got checked in and started my warm up and also did a lot of visiting with fellow runners from other meets. I did add some knee tape yesterday to help my knee cap stay in place and thought I would give it a go. I was in the bull pen to get queued up for my heat and the timer computer crashed and we were dead in the water. After a nearly 30 minute wait we got word that we would be delayed another hour before resuming. So, I just tried to relax and find some shade and prep again. I was in heat one, lane seven. I thought the quick 8 times would advance, but it was heat winners plus the other quick times. It was a nine lane track, so 9 would make the finals. I won my heat easily with a 7.45 and a negative 5.5 wind. I got a great start even though it was new starter and I had no idea of his rhythm, he had a slow finger we were to discover. I knew we had a breeze, but that is a lot of wind! The other heats were around -2.5 (meters per second). My times was the slowest of the 9, but I smoked the heat and I was in! In the finals tomorrow I should be in the mix for a medal when you adjust for the wind difference. I am taking 0.15 seconds to rationalize the time.
I then scratched the 400. My right knee was just iffy enough on the turns to force me to cut my losses and stay with the finals in hand. I hate to scratch, but I have enough other crap wrecked on my lower legs. I hit a high jump standard hard with my left leg, hit a hurdle with my right ankle, and had bruise on my right knee from the high jump standard and two bleeders on my left shin. "Just settle down son and try now to kill yourself"--advice to myself!
Tomorrow, I run again in my favorite race. Bang and done in the 50 meters.
Today--Wednesday--I drove to the Convention Center and got my credentials so I could race and found out that I had a morning race coming up--50 meters prelim. I had not put that race on my start time list, but I had two hours to get to the track and would run it.
I am going to do a 24 hour flashback for the purpose of making this story more interesting and complete. After my final tune up session Tuesday at the gym, I warmed up and stretched indoors to stay in a nice cool place, I sat down at a table to check my phone after finishing and my left knee basically jumped a tooth and locked up! What? This has happened before , but the timing was just too much. I hobbled to my car and had Linda to crank on it to get it back in place with limited success. At that point, it is "run what you brung". Ice and KT tape were my only remedy at hand.
I made it to the track at Samford University and got checked in and started my warm up and also did a lot of visiting with fellow runners from other meets. I did add some knee tape yesterday to help my knee cap stay in place and thought I would give it a go. I was in the bull pen to get queued up for my heat and the timer computer crashed and we were dead in the water. After a nearly 30 minute wait we got word that we would be delayed another hour before resuming. So, I just tried to relax and find some shade and prep again. I was in heat one, lane seven. I thought the quick 8 times would advance, but it was heat winners plus the other quick times. It was a nine lane track, so 9 would make the finals. I won my heat easily with a 7.45 and a negative 5.5 wind. I got a great start even though it was new starter and I had no idea of his rhythm, he had a slow finger we were to discover. I knew we had a breeze, but that is a lot of wind! The other heats were around -2.5 (meters per second). My times was the slowest of the 9, but I smoked the heat and I was in! In the finals tomorrow I should be in the mix for a medal when you adjust for the wind difference. I am taking 0.15 seconds to rationalize the time.
I then scratched the 400. My right knee was just iffy enough on the turns to force me to cut my losses and stay with the finals in hand. I hate to scratch, but I have enough other crap wrecked on my lower legs. I hit a high jump standard hard with my left leg, hit a hurdle with my right ankle, and had bruise on my right knee from the high jump standard and two bleeders on my left shin. "Just settle down son and try now to kill yourself"--advice to myself!
Tomorrow, I run again in my favorite race. Bang and done in the 50 meters.
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