End of Track Season!

I know I write this blog post every year, but I like it – it’s a way for me to reflect on my track season and all my competitions. It’s not only track season that’s winding down, either. There are less than 15 days left until June 2nd, the last day of school! I can’t wait to be done with Freshman year and begin what seems to be for me the longest awaited summer of my life.

Track season started off with two meets a week, for three weeks. Lots of running, jumping, and a bit of throwing. Getting back into high jump was extremely fun, with me having not done it since we were in Sedona in July. At the first meet of the year in Rifle, I discovered that I needed to start working on my sprinting endurance and speed, as I ran the slowest 200m of my life that day. I didn’t feel that bad about it however, because earlier that day I had tied my PR in long jump at 17’6″.

The second meet in Ft. Collins went around the same. This was my first time high jumping at a varsity meet, and it was… quite an experience. I discovered the bar started at 5’6″, 4 inches taller than my personal best. As you would expect, I failed, and pretty bad at that. But once again, I ended up jumping farther than I’d ever jumped before in long jump, at 17’7.5″, with a last-second third jump after I’d failed the first two.

The rest of the meets up until the league meets were pretty stereotypical. I ran a lot of events, with the 100m, 200m, 4×100, 4×200, 4×400, High Jump, and Long Jump. I improved my 200 time slightly, but it still wasn’t the greatest at around 27 seconds. My high jump was pretty uneventful, as well as all over the place. Sometimes I would jump really well in practice, and then completely fail at a meet, or almost clear 5’4″ and not even come close to clearing 5′ the next meet. Two of the meets ended up getting cancelled, which sucked, but it gave me more time to train for the league meets.

A few weeks ago, I competed in the JV league meet, which was pretty fun as everyone wasn’t as good as at normal meets. I failed to come close to my PR in Long Jump, but still ended up taking 8th and scoring a point for the team. I cleared 5’2″ in High Jump, taking 5th, which I was really stoked about. I also ran the 800m and 200m (back to back!), which was, to sum it up in a word, painful. I ran 2:35 in the 800 (which was fine with me, cause I haven’t ever run it before), and a slow 27.4 in the 200 (I was extremely tired after running the 800).

After the JV league meet, I got prepared for our final big meet of the season, our varsity league championships. I got put in the 4×100, 4×200, High Jump, and Long Jump, and aside from the fun I had from actually competing, the entire experience was awesome. We drove out to Grand Junction, where we stayed the night at a hotel (because this meet was a 2-day meet) and ate out as a team. The first day of the meet, I long jumped 17’2.5″ to take 10th overall. As that was the only event I had that day, I basically just slept at our camp and watched other people run. The second day was a bit more eventful. We took last in our relays, which was expected, but I ended up jumping a new high jump PR of 5’3″.

At our final meet of the season, I got put in the 100m, 400m, High Jump, and Long Jump. I basically failed in High Jump, only clearing 4’10”. The 100m went really well – I won my heat, in a time of 12.9 seconds. But, the 100m wasn’t my main focus of the day. I had wanted to run the 400 all season, but didn’t get the chance to. My goal was to break 60 seconds, and I tried really hard, but to no avail. I ran a 26-second first 200, then around a 34-second second 200 to finish with a time of 60.9 seconds. Regardless of my time, I ended up placing 7th overall, and scoring 2 points for the team.

So that’s how my track season went. I realize this post was a lot of numbers, and I keep trying to stop myself from solely writing times, lengths, and heights, but I still have a lot to improve on. I think my track season went really well for Freshman year, and I hope to improve my times greatly next year.

Here’s a comparison of my track times from 7th grade to last year to this year (my 7th/8th grade times may not be completely accurate because all the meets were hand-timed, compared to the FAT of this year. There were a few times after the school season where I ran in other meets, and I still count those as part of the previous school season)

2015 Season (7th Grade):

• 100m: 13.2
• 200m: 27.9
• 400m: 68.0
• 800m: 2:48
• High Jump: 5’0″

2016 Season (8th Grade):

• 100m: 12.4
• 200m: 26.6
• 400m: 65.0
• High Jump: 5’2″
• Long Jump: 17’6″
• 1kg Discus: 74’6″

2017 Season (9th Grade):

• 100m: 12.9
• 200m: 27.0
• 400m: 60.9
• 800m: 2:36
• High Jump: 5’3″
• Long Jump: 17’7.5″