Well I competed in the Drake Relays this weekend, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it competing… Before I go on I want to thank Brian Brown (Meet Director) and Carolyn Hill (Assistant Meet Director) for allowing me to compete in the Drake Relays. I went into the meet prepared to go and jump big, but had a mishap blow the whole weekend. When I got to the track I went to find my packet, but no one was around so I went to search for someone to help me with this problem. Finally after standing in the 45 degree weather for a half an hour someone came to the table to assist me and the other athletes who were waiting. I finally got my number and went to the event area to check in. They were running a little behind schedule so I asked the head official when they thought the event would start. He said the event was supposed to go off at 1:00, by this time it was 12:50 the official told me that they would have a meeting at 1:15 and probably get started at 1:30.
So I thought great that would give me enough time to get out of the cold for a minute and to warm-up indoors since I was in the third flight. I had an athlete that I coach at Carthage College keep me posted on the details of the event. I had him call me when the first flight started. I had him call me when the second flight started, so I knew how much time I had, and I had him call me when the second jumps of the second flight were contested so I could come out the building. Everything up to this point sounds like it’s going according to plan, but little to my or 2 other athletes (Carl White and Marc Dzradosi) knowledge things were about drastically wrong.
When we got outside to the triple jump area it was to our surprise that they 2nd and 3rd flights were combined. When Carl told me that I thought it was a joke because I saw people in the third flight with spikes and sweat suits on, but it was true. Now here were are trying to figure out if we were going to be able to jump. After talking to the head official they allowed us to jump, but with no warm up and no approaches. Now the three of us are upset because we have been put in a situation that puts us in a disadvantage, especially after I spoke with the head official before I left and he didn’t mention anything about combining the flights and there was no other noticed or announcement about combining the flights.
We were forced to jump with no warm ups no approaches, and no time in between jumps, needless to say, the performance was awful. I only jumped a meager 48’00” and did not make the finals. This was not the way that I wanted my Drake experience to go considering the fact that was the same place that I set my first post collegiate PR, but there will be better days to come. I will use this as a learning experience and hopefully I will have a chance to redeem myself next year at Drake Relays.