Day 14 of no smoking, feeling good and comfortable.
Devon Athletics Champs
I had entered the 100m to see what kind of a time I could do (never done one before) and the javelin, hoping to better last year's mark of 54.90m in September.
I got to the stadium with about 30 mins before the 100m races were due to start. Picked up my number and the lady said, "Oh, you're in the javelin - it's going to be a good competition!". Didn't think much more about that, had a warm up to go and do but was not feeling the love for the impending sprint!
Off I jogged. Did quite a bit of stretching and jogging to moderate sprinting down the back straight. Felt like an imposter with all the lycra and lightning quick strides goin on all around me! Hey ho - it was a bit of fun.
There were 3 men in the V35 category and 5 others in the Senior Men category, all of us racing together as a straight final. I got Lane 2 in between the other two vets. Everyone else in the race had blocks. Me - it was a kneel down on the track and wait for the gun approach! We were called to the start.
"On Your Marks"...we all get settled in at the line.
"Set"...... here we go, get ready for the bang
FALSE START - everyone else jumped out of the blocks while I just stayed where I was staring at my knee...!
And again...
"On Your Marks"
"Set"
"BANG" - this time!!
And we're off - fast steps, get up to speed...oh wait - everyone else has blasted away from me! Oh bloomin heck....
As I got to about 40m I was behind everyone and trailing. It was like a school sports day where the slow kid's legs are moving but he's not really moving! Oh dear. And there's lots of people watching... oh well, just stride out and keep working.
As I got to 80m, the other guys had stopped going away from me, I had caught up to their speed, although I was miles behind! The other thing I remember is that my hamstrings were screaming at me with every step, each step getting worse and worse, but I battled on. One guy pulled up with 10m to go and I went past him to finish 7th out of the 8 starters...
Winner was 11.0 I think and top 5 spots all under 12 seconds. 6th place was 12.3s, I was 13.2s and the last guy 14.7s.
UPDATE! The official results came through and I was a tiny bit faster than first indicated - 13.01s:
It was fun in a 'let's have a go and see what happens' kind of way. It wasn't fun in terms of the pain in my legs and the embarrassment factor of being so slow in a 100m final. Heck - the Under 15 boys race would have seen me out of the medals...!
At least I now have a 100m PB, so if I ever decide to go again I'll be aiming to go sub 13 seconds.
I took Tammy and Bagel home as it was a bit cold and boring for them. On the way home, My hams kept cramping up so I rubbed some ibruprofen gel into the hams, and set back off to the stadium for part 2 - javelin!
Got there with half an hour to warm up again. Read the programme to see who was entered:
Alex Van Der Merwe - 74m thrower (Sen)
Matt Smith - 70m thrower (U23)
Simon Bennett - 66m thrower (V35)
Stephen Turnock - 64m thrower (U20)
To put it into perspective, my best when U20 was 63.14m. In recent years, I did 54.90m last year and a couple of 51-52m comps for cameo appearances out of the blue in 2006 and 2009.
I would have been happy with 50m today considering the agony I was in!
First throw off a full run-up. Had not measured it properly and had run out of runway so I cut it short at the end and posted a miserable 42m first round. The 4 guys above all threw over 60m and I knew there was no way I'd be challenging them so it was me against me against the hamstrings....!
by the last round I'd not hit 50m and had done 48m twice I think. All I wanted to do was hit the magic 50m for today but my legs were preventing me from doin any form of run-up. I just walked in and blasted it with my arm as best I could. 49.49m - nearly but not quite what I wanted.
Great to meet my old pals and meet some new guys on the scene who look like they could get in amongst the mid 70's with a couple more years behind them.
I think today's result was:
Alex - 66m
Matt - 65m
Steve - 63m
Simon - 60m
I earned a Silver Medal by virtue of there only being two V35 throwers and posting a score. I asked about the 100m in which I was 3rd out of 3 V35's but they said sorry it was only the winner who got one. I said I didn't mind as I didn't really deserve a medal by running like a school girl! 
All good fun. Vets Champs June 19th - count me in!
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