Life is Good!

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much about my disappointing performance in some of the events at Saturday’s meet, because there definitely was a least one big bright spot.

Late in the long, hot, humid day I walked into the hammer ring, very tired and dehydrated and I threw the hammer farther than I thought I could…4 times in a row. My previous personal record was just a hair over 105’, a mark that I set at the last meet of the year last season. While this was only about 6’ further than I had thrown at a meet earlier in the year it was good to end the year on a high note, albeit a small one. After all, it was only the 5th time I had ever thrown hammer in competition.

On Saturday however, something got into me. God only knows what, because I haven’t been practicing hammer very much at all. In spite of this I opened with a throw of 115’ 4” and a new personal record. I could have walked away at that point and been a “happy camper”, but I followed this effort with a second throw of 117’ 2”. After sub-par performances in the 3 previous events of the meet, all of a sudden the day was starting to look pretty good. My third throw was 116’ 2.5”. It wasn’t an improvement over my second throw but it made me start to think that maybe my first two throws weren’t lucky shots, and that just maybe I belonged in this neighborhood. On my 4th and final throw I just relaxed and let ‘er rip. I uncharacteristically let out a grunt as the hammer left my hand. It wasn’t intentional, it just came out. As I watched the hammer fly all I could think of was “don’t foul”. My first 3 throws had been more or less right down the middle, but this one was heading toward the right sector line, and I had experienced some serious right sector foul trouble with the Weight Throw earlier in the day. As it turns out the hammer landed safely, about 10’ inside the sector line, and 128’ 7.5” away.

I must admit that improving my personal record by over 23.5’ was a major rush. It’s right up there with my 134’ 11” discus throw back on April 11th, and my 36’ 5.5” shot put on April 22nd. So far this year I have personal records in 4 of the 5 throwing events that I normally participate in. My only remaining record to fall is that of the Weight Throw. And that one is pretty much of a “lock” at the next meet. Actually, I would have thrown a personal record in the Weight Throw on Saturday if I had only kept it in the sector. My record in the weight is 40’ 2”, and on Saturday I had 4 throws over 40’, but all were out of bounds. (I know what to do to correct this.)

Discus and Shot Put were also disappointments on Saturday. I was unable to recapture whatever it was that allowed those big throws earlier in the year. My best discus mark was 124’ 5.5” and in Shot Put my best was 33’ 2”. Still, it’s been a very good season for me so far, what with the 4 PRs, and season averages near or above last season’s all-time PRs. Life is good…lifting weights is good.

One more thing – I tried the Super Weight on Saturday. This event is definitely not for me, and I doubt I will ever throw it again…at least not this season. I will need a lot more meat on my bones before I wrestle with that monster again!