USA National Championships

Once again an interesting experience at the USA Outdoor National Championships. By some incredible miracle, Ryan Harlan and my vault poles made it to the track in Indianapolis on Friday! Aron McGuire of USATF who's been "on this case" since we left the Dominican drove to the airport himself to get them out of customs. Yes it took a month to get them back, but I was so relieved to finally see them again.
Since arriving in Indy, I had spent a lot of time having work done on my adductor which I "tweaked" throwing the javelin about a week prior. We basically shut it down entirely and simply rehabbed before the meet. I had acupuncture the night before the meet which really seemed to alleviate virtually all the pain. I was impressed with the results and felt good entering the competition.
Day 1 started with similar weather as last year with light rain and overcast conditions. Once again, they had us set up to run with headwinds when year after year we address this issue. I lucked out and had the heat with virtually no wind though. The conditions were not conducive to very fast times, but I was still in good shape after opening with a modest 11.35.
The rain subsided and we long jumped with the wind at our backs. I opened with 7.18m (23' 5 1/2"). That would be my only mark as I fouled my last two attempts (by a hair on my last one) both of which were significantly farther. It tied for the third best mark behind Tom Pappas (7.50m) and Paul Terek (7.26m) and equalling Bryan Clay.
We then had an hour break as we had to wait for the heptathlon high jump to finish. That end of the track was very crowded with multiple events going on at once. I threw in the second flight. I was finally able to relax and be patient with a throw. After a sub-par opener (under 14.00m), my second attempt was a 43cm decathlon pr (15.33m - 50' 3.5"). This would hold on for fourth in the event behind Pappas, Clay and Harlan.
I struggled with a consistent approach in the high jump. I'm still almost convinced that I measured something wrong as I didn't feel like I was remotely close to my mid-mark and taking off very far away from the bar. I opened at 1.96m (6' 5"), passed 1.99m (6' 6 1/2"), cleared 2.02m (6' 7 1/2") and 2.05m (6' 8 3/4") on first attempts. It took all three to manage 2.08m (6' 9 3/4") and with my takeoff so far out and "diving at the bar", I was unable to clear 2.11m (6' 11"). I tied for the win in the even along with Ryan Harlan.
Clay withdrew from the competition after the high jump as he was still feeling the effects of having done a multi about 3 weeks ago.
I drew lane 8 for the 400m which is difficult since you can't tell where anyone else is on the track. We've been emphasizing nothing but relaxation throughout my shoulders and arms while running. It was an "ok" race. I know my fitness is much better than my 51.09 indicated, but on that day, in that race, that's about all I had.
I ended the first day in third place with 4094 points, 15 points off pr day 1 pace. I knew I left significant points on the track, but also knew I was sitting in a pretty good position going into the second day!
We were once again greeted with overcast skies and rain as we got to the track for the 110m hurdles. While it was raining, we had tailwinds for all heats of the hurdles. I didn't stay down and drive very well. Maybe running into headwinds all year forced me to drive better ;) I ran a very average 14.90 and dropped a couple of places in the standings but was still alive going into the discus.
For some unknown reason, we threw in the discus ring outside of the stadium where the winds were howling (a tailwind which hinders the flight of the discus) even though there was no activity going on in the stadium. It was still raining at the start and many athlete (including myself), put socks over there left shoe to create friction in an effort to avoid slipping. Talk about a selfless coach! Scott gave me both of this nice Nike socks and spent the rest of the day walking around in wet conditions with no socks on! I opened the discus with a sector foul which would come back to haunt me as it was easily my farthest throw of the competition. In my final 2 attempts I could only manage 41.33m (135'). Virtually everyone threw distances significantly off their pr's. Some throws that looked great still only measured 41m. I, among others, became very skeptical of the accuracy of the laser and system they were using to measure the throws so we had them pull a tape measure on a couple. Unfortunately our nightmare was a reality as it was accurate. We all swallowed our pride and moved to the vault.
As we were warming up for the vault another front came through and it poured for a little while delaying the start of the vault. I opened at 4.60m (about 15') then cleared 4.70m, 4.80m, 4.90m and 5.00m (16' 4 3/4" - a decathlon PR) all on first attempts. I didn't have any great attempts at 5.10m (16' 8") but was satisfied with the result. I moved back up into 3rd place and had an 8 event pr score of 6551. I knew that if I had a solid javelin that I may be able to smell 8000.
Unfortunately it was not to be as I could only manage 53.70m (about 176'), a mark significantly under my average. This cost me valuable points and position. I dropped to fifth place going into the 1500m and would remain there as I only gained 50 points on Harlan in the final event, running 4:52.70.
I reflect on the meet and while disappointed, am incredibly excited about what lies ahead and confident in my abilities! My finish qualified me for the Pan American Games held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil July 13-29. Ryan Harlan will be the other decathlete representing the US. The decathlon takes place on July 23-24 (Monday and Tuesday). I'll be traveling to Dallas, TX on July 13 for a quick tune-up meet at St. Marks School before heading to Washington for National Team Processing and off to Brazil on July 19.
On August 18-19, I'll one again be part of the USA vs. Germany Dual Decathlon which will be back in Bernhausen, Germany this year. It's always a very fun, very competitive meet. I'm not positive, but believe the other 6 US Team members will be Ryan Harlan, Chris Randolph, Chris Helwick, Mustafa-Abdur Rahim, Chris Richardson and Ryan Olkowski (that's a lot of Chris's).
Chris Helwick, a recent Tennessee grad, will be moving here to Winston to train. I'm very much looking forward to having a training partner. I know Scott's excited as well as he coached Chris back when he was a junior competing in Colorado. There's also this local radio show here called "2 Guys Named Chris" and he's been talking about getting us on there forever as soon as Chris gets out here ;)
Sorry for the book! Hope this finds you all doing well and trying to avoid the nickel-sized hail like we've had here recently! Thanks again for all of the emails of encouragement and continued support!
Mom and Dad, you guys are amazing! You never miss a beat! Thanks for everything!