This is an excellent question. I don't usually like to brag about my track success (except to my 6ft tall little brother who aspires to be as good as my 5'3" self); however, for the sake of my credibility on this blog, I suppose I could do a little bragging, if you insist. Throughout grade school, I won every event, except for a few 2nds in the 200m. In 8th grade, I jumped 15'3" in the long jump. Freshman year of high school, I had never even heard of the triple jump, but since I loved long jump so much, I figured I'd give it a try. That year I made it to state in the triple jump. I didn't place, but I guess that's because I was a 5'3" freshman jumping against a bunch of 5'9"+ juniors and seniors. Sophomore year, track season started out great. I got 2nd place in long and triple jump at our first indoor meet with fairly good distances in both. The girl I lost to by a couple inches was at least a foot taller than I was. After that meet however, I realized that I had injured my hip flexer. I competed in a few other meets that year, but eventually it became too painful and I had to sit out. Junior year, I switched to a large public D1 school. It was a horrible year for various reasons, and on top of everything else, my injury was still hurting me from time to time, so I decided not to do track. I missed it every day, so my senior year I went out again. I told my coach that I only wanted to do long jump and triple jump since those are the events I care most about, and since I was worried about re-injuring myself by doing too much. This worked out great for me. I won almost every single track meet that year. I won the "Outstanding Field Athlete" award at one of the invitationals. I won Conference in triple jump, and placed 3rd in long jump. I won Regionals in both events, creating a new personal best for long jump of 17'2". I won Sectionals for triple jump, and placed 3rd for long jump, getting me to State for both events. At State, I blew my triple jumps (might have had something to do with the fact that the heat index that day was 120 degrees F), but when I made it to finals in long jump, I was in 3rd place. In finals, I jumped 17'3", creating a new PR for myself on my very last jump. Unfortunately a few other girls also started jumping better, so I only got 5th place. But hey, still placed at State. Now I'm an assistant long and triple jump coach at the high school I graduated from, and I'm hoping to start doing track again next year. So there you have it. Hopefully that's convincing enough for you to trust my track knowledge.
Why Trust Me?
This is an excellent question. I don't usually like to brag about my track success (except to my 6ft tall little brother who aspires to be as good as my 5'3" self); however, for the sake of my credibility on this blog, I suppose I could do a little bragging, if you insist. Throughout grade school, I won every event, except for a few 2nds in the 200m. In 8th grade, I jumped 15'3" in the long jump. Freshman year of high school, I had never even heard of the triple jump, but since I loved long jump so much, I figured I'd give it a try. That year I made it to state in the triple jump. I didn't place, but I guess that's because I was a 5'3" freshman jumping against a bunch of 5'9"+ juniors and seniors. Sophomore year, track season started out great. I got 2nd place in long and triple jump at our first indoor meet with fairly good distances in both. The girl I lost to by a couple inches was at least a foot taller than I was. After that meet however, I realized that I had injured my hip flexer. I competed in a few other meets that year, but eventually it became too painful and I had to sit out. Junior year, I switched to a large public D1 school. It was a horrible year for various reasons, and on top of everything else, my injury was still hurting me from time to time, so I decided not to do track. I missed it every day, so my senior year I went out again. I told my coach that I only wanted to do long jump and triple jump since those are the events I care most about, and since I was worried about re-injuring myself by doing too much. This worked out great for me. I won almost every single track meet that year. I won the "Outstanding Field Athlete" award at one of the invitationals. I won Conference in triple jump, and placed 3rd in long jump. I won Regionals in both events, creating a new personal best for long jump of 17'2". I won Sectionals for triple jump, and placed 3rd for long jump, getting me to State for both events. At State, I blew my triple jumps (might have had something to do with the fact that the heat index that day was 120 degrees F), but when I made it to finals in long jump, I was in 3rd place. In finals, I jumped 17'3", creating a new PR for myself on my very last jump. Unfortunately a few other girls also started jumping better, so I only got 5th place. But hey, still placed at State. Now I'm an assistant long and triple jump coach at the high school I graduated from, and I'm hoping to start doing track again next year. So there you have it. Hopefully that's convincing enough for you to trust my track knowledge.
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