Sunday, July 27, 2008

Kansas recap

Okay so this is a late posting, but here's recap on my trip to Kansas.


Thursday:

I arrive in Kansas City, MO around 10:30a after leaving on a crazy early flight from Boston (5:30a), gather the gals that were assigned to my car, pickup the rental, and drive to Olathe, KS. Not too much excitement in this day. It goes like this in a brief synopsis-Meet whoever else is in KS. Lunch. Target. Home Depot. Hotel attempt for pool. No pool. Check in to room. Hang out. Target again. Find and jog to track. Track closed. Debate crawling under gate to get to track. Decide not. Jog back to hotel. Grocery store to stock up food. Get lost finding grocery store. Finally find. Shop. Grill chicken make pasta salad upon return. Share with friends. Shower. Sleep. Or something to that effect.

Friday:



Today is the first day of competition. It starts off at the University of Kansas for the Hammer Throw. A small group of us decided to drive up the 30min to the campus to cheer on the one teammate who's throwing. Watched some hammer, took some pics, then when she was done headed back to home quarters to do a shake out run and continue the rest of the competition. Since my event wasn't until Sat I was able to float around to take pictures and cheer on my teammates. Lots of great performances all around. Nice and easy day. I will add that it was a great experience to be able to cheer the field events since they typically are in effect during running events so it's hard to give support to fellow jumpers and throwers (which they expressed they appreciated).

Saturday:

Today is the 2nd and last day of competitions which includes a handful of field events, open events and the everyone's favorite relays. Started the day off lending a cheer squad for men Javelin, then I was off for a trial pre-race ritual. Since my nerves have started to get the best of me lately, especially with the hurdles, I decided to try and listen to music beforehand to take my mind away from the whole performance anxiety. It was also an experiment because I'm debating getting an IPod, as one of the last people in the world not to own one I'm unsure if I want to jump on the bandwagon, but I figure if it can distract me it might be worth it. The music did help dispel some nervous energy. I didn't PR, I finished 8th total but I did score 1 point for the team which was good. It was only race #4 so next season I will be able to build from that. I was just happy that I was able to join the team in KS and find an event that I could potentially be pretty decent at with time and practice.


That wasn't then end of my day, I still had a leg in the 4x800. We came in 2nd, were under the cut off time and scored some more points for the team. YAY!
At the end of it all the ladies came in 4th place, the men in 5th place and combined overall we came in 4th. Not too shabby with a team of 14 women and 14 men Go GBTC!
We celebrated the end of our season with some midwest BBQ--YUM and mini party in the hotel not without a shortage of belly laughs.



Sunday:

Check out at the hotel was noon but most everyone's flights didn't leave until later in the afternoon, so we decided to drive to Kansas City to check out some sights and kill time. After time elapsed we head to the airport with intentions of heading back home. Oh how disillusioned, how convenient our flight was delayed so they said we wouldn't make our connecting flight and they had no other flights to Boston until Monday morning. Okay so we're stuck here until the morning, fine. Not so fine the airline wasn't going to pay for our hotel room. They said they could offer a distressed rate at certain hotels which wasn't distressed at $70/night for a crap shoot hotel. Note to self is never fly Delta again and they will be getting a nasty letter from me. What's even more ridiculous is I paid extra to fly out on a Sun flight. Also that other teammates got stuck in their layover for 2 days and yet their airline (United, which is usually who I fly) paid for their hotel and gave them food vouchers. NOT right. I know that there's an economic setback right now in the airline industry (as well as every other industry) but that doesn't make it okay not to take care of paying customers. That is how you lose business and put yourself more in a crunch. Sorry I just had to rant about that because it angers me.

More of my photos at http://runphotos.shutterfly.com/

Meet Photographers link of 400IH and the rest of the meet http://www.backprint.com/view_event_photos.asp?PID=bp%18yG&EVENTID=39109&ID=53454794&FROM=browser&CAT=180836&SUB=0

Friday, July 18, 2008

Hello Kansas

I have made it safely to Kansas and didn't even drop a house on anyone.....yet! More to come as events progress.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Living on Words

It's been a while since I've blogged on a quote, mainly just due to not coming across any that really move me, but today warrants a posting. As I was perusing the web on this lovely Sunday afternoon, (because hey I have nothing better to do) I came across an interview on Lolo Jones http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/lolo-jones-interview . Lolo is a 60m and 100m hurdler, and she is going to the Olympics to represent the U.S. in the 100mH. She is amazing to watch, I actually got to watch her up close win the 60m Hurdles at the Indoor National Meet this year--awesome. Anyways to the point, in this interview she sites the quote by Frederick Douglass, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." I love that just a few simple words can provoke so much emotion and power. This one may be one of the few that can hold a candle to my absolute live-by Jack London quote.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Food+Friends=Fabulous

What makes a great day even better...Great friends!! HAPPY 4th of July Weekend!

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Congratulations GBTC

2008 Women's Regional Champions

2008 Men's Runners-up

Congrats to both teams for their impressive performances all over the board. Wow can't believe Nationals are coming up fast! Now if only my form over the hurdles would come just as fast.