Off To A Great Start

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should accomplish with your ability."

-John Wooden


I love this quote! It's exactly how I feel about myself when it comes to track! Our first meet was yesterday! It was at Bucknell University. Even though everyone hates on this meet, I love it! It gives me a sneak peak of what's to come for the season and I liked what I saw! Take away all the track team drama and it was a pretty good meet. We did alright as a team, I was a little disappointed in the overall performance though. I expected more, but that's only because I have high hopes for everyone this year. I tend to look at performances on another level though; I set the bar pretty high, lol.

Anyways, I was feeling great on Friday when we went to the track to practice. Everything is so different when you're not injured. I only experienced two injury free meets last season (Regionals and Nationals) and it was different because I was coming off of injury and I wasn't completely sure if I would pull something or not. So, Friday when we went to the track to warm up I was feeling extra great and excited for the meet.

Saturday, omgosh I was sooo freaking tired!!!! I was up talking to my teammate Brittany (we have been roommates since Sophomore year!!) and Saturday was her birthday. I didn't go to sleep until 1am ish and woke up at 7:30. Not the best idea. But I believe that your best times happen when you didn't get much sleep the night before lol. Almost all my pr's happened when I stayed up, so it works. So, before I was nervous and excited before I ran the prelims for the 60 hurdles. The warm up was pretty good and I was feeling alright. My Coach (Coach Grigsby) was impressed with my warm up, which never happens lol. She said my blocks were actually good and everything was looking pretty tight. =) It was funny because I went to look at the schedule to see who ran first and I was like since I'm looking what's the record so I can try to beat it. Turns out I have the stadium or meet record (I can't remember which one) I got it last year lol. So, I ran the prelims. I ran a wack ass 8.70 ... I mean it could've at least be a 8.69. I was feeling great and I was sure it was under 8.5 but nope... wack ass 8.70. I mean I had the fastest time going into the finals but like I said ... I have high standards. lol. I was extra disappointed but I talked to Coach and she told me to get my lead leg down and start forcing it before I got over the hurdle. In my warm up for finals I worked on and fixed the problem (as best I could) and when I was working on it I banged the mess outta my knee... but that comes with the territory lol

So, the finals roll around. I'm feeling good! I have a nice rhythm I'm just hoping I get out the blocks like I did in the prelims. My start is clearly the weakest part of my race so I try to really focus on it. I was proud that all the female hurdlers made it to the finals!! The boys did good too. =) Anyways, I get out and I'm feeling great... then I hit a hurdle and fall! Jk. haha. Nah I finished and won the race. I was feeling really good, really pushing and getting my lead leg down and keeping my arms tight, even though I was basically running by myself. I got the feeling I get when I run fast in the short hurdles when everything becomes slightly blurry and I kind of lose control of my body... it's like an out of body experience... it's really kool lol. Anyways, I finished with a 8.42 much better than the prelims. I was extra geeked! I did a happy dance lol. Not only did I run my p.r. (personal record) the first meet! I qualified provisionally for Nationals. Last year I was off by .01!! And my teammate Alex ran a 8.74!!! I was extra geeked for her because that's a great start! Normally, she doesn't break 9.0 until mid season and she smashed it at the first meet! Our Freshman Keisha did well also =)

I'm never satisfied for long though. Gotta get down to 8.18 so I can be an A standard athlete... or at least 8.25 so I can get on the World List!! =) I also ran the 200. I HATE the 200. I would have been sooooo upset if I would have ran 25 seconds like I always do the first meet but I ran 24.89 and that was good, I was satisfied. I won that event too. I also ran 3rd leg on the 4x4. My leg was 56 seconds, I wasn't really trying though, I was actually surprised it was that fast... We were really far behind and I wasn't about to waste energy because by this time I was sooo tired and I hadn't eaten all day! Our relay ran 3:59 which is not good but whatever lol it wasn't the A team anyway. I'm kind of excited about the 4x4 A team, we are going to be good this year, I can tell. I miss Lauren, much! I wish she was still here! She was our lead leg last year.

So, I'm very hopeful of this season and our first meet went great! Once again Good Luck with finals and all your endeavors, thanks for reading ... Ttyl =)