Well, my track and field season is officially over. A lot went on for me this season. Frustration was prominent in the beginning of the season for me. Meets were not going well, and I had a fear that I was not going to even qualify for the Olympic Trials. But I remedied that when I traveled out to the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. After going two years without an improvement in my discus throw I was able to straighten some things out and line things up for my best throw ever of 61.36m (201' 3"). This was enough to ensure my qualification for the Trials and eased my frustrations. After returning home from the OTC a week and a half outside of my competition date at the Trials I was training and suffered a slight strain of my right pec muscle, something that has been happening much to frequently the past two years. I rested it for three days unable to throw and lift for fear I would further damage it and be totally useless. This brought frustration back to me. I knew I needed to lift and continue refining my technique up to the big meet, but I had no choice but to lay off and let it heal so I could compete.
When I arrived in Eugene I felt great! I was excited to be there and overall my body felt probably the best it had all year. I definitely had making the Olympic Trials finals in my mindset. I truly believed I would be within the top 8 after my fifth place finish last year at the US Championships. It is truly difficult to not be inspired and motivated to do your best when competing at such an event. One of the first steps to success is believing in yourself, and I sure did and still do, but the results of the qualifying round did not represent that well.
The night of my competition was exciting. I definitely had a good amount of adrenaline flowing through me when I stepped out on to the field with first flight of throwers in front of a full Hayward Field stadium. I went through my warm up throws and felt great. My pec was pain free, a big thanks to my adrenaline! I felt fluid and calm amidst the tense atmosphere. I honestly felt I was going to have another lifetime best throw with all this energy. The competition finally began and I was the second thrower. I got in the ring and gave that 2k discus everything I had...but I put a bad flight on it and it fell far short of my seasons best throw. This didn't effect my mind set because I knew I had 2 more throws to get it right. My second throw came and I landed it around 190'. I knew this wasn't going to be enough to get me to the finals. I made sure on my last throw that I was going to put everything I had within me to get a better throw. When I hit my final throw I thought I had connected and sent that discus near 200' as I watched it fly high and with a perfect spin! I continued to watch it but my heart sank when I saw the discus start falling from the sky and hitting at a similar distance as my previous throw. My final throw did not better my second throw, and at that, my appearance at the Olympic Trials was over. Back to the stadium seats to watch other people have their day.
I'll tell you it really hurt to walk inside the stadium on the day of the discus finals and watch my friends and fellow competitors warming up before going inside the stadium to perform for 21,000 excited track and field fans. I wanted to be out there so bad! It was a feeling that I don't want to forget. I definitely don't want to experience that feeling again, but sometimes I feel it is good to endure pain like that so that it drives you and makes you hungry. "The sweet ain't so sweet without the bitter!"
Now that my season is over I am already gearing up for next year. I am putting my focus into doing some big things next year. In doing so I am putting on weight as I type this so that I can throw the shot put again competitively starting this winter. I really missed throwing it this year, but I thought it would be in my best interest to focus on the discus with a lot of guys throwing the shot put well. It will just be another challenge to take on!
