Life and the Decathlon

Mission Accomplished

2008-10-02T17:11:00.002-05:00

In just over an hour today, Dr. Cook managed to clean up my ankle which is confirmed "sure had a lot going on". He felt like it was a success which was great to hear. My leg is in a boot now with a tube pumping cold water into a sleeve around my ankle. Looks like I'll see the doc early next week and then be able to head back. I have to stay non weight bering for 4 weeks, then in a walking boot for another 4. So long as I follow the doc's instructions, he's confident the recovery will be a good one.
I got so many emails over the past 24 hours and thank you all so much for caring and for your encouragement and most of all prayers.
I'll update my status in the days to come.

God Bless,
Chris

Finally, an answer!!!

2008-10-02T17:11:00.001-05:00

So after over a year of frustration with my ankle, I finally found out today exactly what's going on in there. I had an appointment today in Dallas, TX with a very well respected foot and ankle specialist Dr. Charles Cook. He's worked with the majority of the professional sports teams in Dallas and was quick to point out multiple problems that would cause the pain that I've had throughout the past 13 months. The osteochondral defect which I had surgery to repair in March, was still very much there, along with significant bone spurs at the joint on the dome of the talus. These will be repaired along with very loose ligaments (that have from multiple ankle sprains over time). Dr. Cook has developed a technique with which to tighten these ligaments. He compared it to cooking bacon on the stove...when you do so, it shrinks. The same concept applies with the ligaments. When they are exposed to heat, they will tighten. All three problems will be addressed tomorrow in a surgery that's supposed to take just over an hour. I was shocked, yet relieved that I am able to get in so quickly. Also relieved to finally know what's been causing me all of this discomfort for the past year. It looks like I'll need to stay here in Dallas for 10-14 days for a post-operation appointment and until I'm able to get on an airplane back to Carolina. The Wildman family has been way more than generous than I could ever imagine in letting me invade their house and providing transportation and some serious food. I'm truly humbled by their generosity!

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. I'd love to hear from many of you if you have a minute to drop a line. Lord knows, I'll have nothing but time over the next week or so.

God Bless,

Chris

Off to TX

2008-09-24T12:46:00.003-05:00

A few changes since my last plan to head up to ME for my ankle. After my last newsletter, I received an email from someone (who's name I'll keep anonymous for now) who has connections with some top notch foot/ankle guys in the Dallas area. He made a few calls for me and got me an appointment with a Dr. Charles Cook. He's a top ankle specialist in Dallas who actually performed Dirk Nowitzki's (Dallas Mavericks basketball star) ankle suregery so I know I'm going to the best. I will be leaving this weekend for TX and seeing the Doc on Tuesday. This is an open-ended trip as I will stay to have surgery (if needed). The family who made the contact for me has been gracious enough to let me stay with them during my time in TX. Once I find out any more information after I see the Dr. on Tuesday, I'll be sure to update.

..........you may have noted the banner on the main page of my website. Darren LeBlanc was an '02 Messiah Graduate and just last night lost his wife and high school sweetheart to brain cancer. Please pray for Darren and their families and they mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Misty. http://www.leblanclife.com

update

2008-09-14T18:56:00.000-05:00

Just a brief update to let you all know what’s been going on.
I’ve been trying for the past few weeks to figure out my ankle situation. I obviously was able to finish the season completing the USA vs. Germany decathlon, but my ankle is still not in good shape even after taking 4 weeks off. I don’t want to put my body through another season unless my ankle is significantly improved. I also don’t want to permanently damage so I’m able to move when I’m 40 ☺
I’ve been trying to get in to see a couple of different doctors, but was told I couldn’t be seen until early next year. That’s right, I said next year!!! Thankfully, the Lord works in crazy ways sometimes and I was fortunate enough to meet an orthopedic in Portland, ME who has been very very helpful throughout this entire situation. I will find out tomorrow when I can be seen up there and will then be flying up to ME. They are going to do everything in one trip (MRI, diagnosis and any procedure that may need to be done) so I could be in ME for a little while.
I’ll update as soon as I find out when I’ll be heading north.

Thanks for all of your continued prayers and support!

Update

2008-08-13T16:12:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to give a brief update on the visa situation. Not much has changed with regards to obtaining my visa. There has been, however, a lot of media attention given to Joey Cheek and the other 3 of us who had our visa revoked. It is our hope that this media has drawn attention and created even more awareness to the genocide continuing to take place in Darfur, Sudan.
I was supposed to leave tomorrow morning for Beijing with Doc Draeger. I'm in the process of appealing to Northwest Airlines in hopes of getting a refund for my airline ticket.
For more information, please visit www.teamdarfur.org

Now I'll be focusing on fixing my ankle.

Thanks for your continuous support!

God Bless,
Chris

Chinese visa mysteriously revoked - reason unknown until now!

2008-08-06T13:39:00.005-05:00

It has been quite a process trying to secure my Chinese visa in preparation for my trip over to Beijing with Doc Draeger. Our applications were all submitted together. I received a phone call on July 24 stating that there was some type of problem with my visa and I was being denied. In the middle of our conversation, I was placed on hold only to have the woman return and tell me that it was a misunderstanding and my visa was granted. A couple of days later, I received my passport in the mail with the visa in it so I was confident everything was good to go. 4 days after that, I was told the visa was not valid and that I needed to re-submit through the Chinese consulate in Washington, DC. I submitted my application once again right before I left for Kansas for the USA vs. Germany Dual Decathlon. During my trip in KS, I was told that I was again denied and the travel agent suggested I drive to the consulate in DC and apply in person as virtually all are granted in person. I flew back to North Carolina early Monday morning, gathered my things and headed up to PA. I arrived at the DC Consulate Tuesday at lunch time where I was told they were not even able to accept an application because my original had been revoked. I contacted everyone I could think of for advice/assistance from the local level all the way through the federal. the consensus being that the US can't interject at all with the Chinese. They are allowed to deny whomever they want for whatever reason and don't have to tell you why. I was only the 2nd person in the 20 years of this travel agency to be denied my visa. It certainly had me shaking my head.
While in Beijing, I was supposed to be meeting with Joey Cheek (www.teamdarfur.org). Joey was the 2006 Olympic Speed Skating Gold Medalist in the 500 meters and co-founder of Team Darfur. Team Darfur is an international coalition of athletes committed to raising awareness about and bringing an end to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. I joined Team Darfur a few months ago and signed my name to "An Open Letter to the Government of the People’s Republic of China" pleading for China to take action again the human destruction that's taking place. I placed a link on the main page of my website and have a brief bio on the Team Darfur site. I'm guessing the connection was made and my visa was revoked. Since I wasn't able to get my visa, I sent an email to his staff, telling them I would no longer be able to meet Joey in Beijing.....this was last night.
This morning, I awake to find out that Joey's visa had been revoked and it was all over the national news media. I received a call from his staff stating they received my email and discussing the irony of the whole situation. That Joey had the support of many senators and the Bush Administration. I was able to get my name included in these letters as a last chance effort to possibly get my visa.
While it's good to finally know the reason I was rejected, it's very disheartening at the same time. That people are barred from attending the Olympic Games because of their beliefs in human rights and public display of such beliefs through websites, etc. I know the Lord has a plan here and maybe more attention will be drawn to the crisis in Darfur as a result of all of this.
I will keep you up to date on any changes that may occur, but encourage you all to visit www.teamdarfur.org for more news.
I am thankful for the freedoms that I have!

God Bless,
Chris

2008-07-09T15:50:00.002-05:00

Most of you who have been following me for awhile certainly know by now who Doc Draeger is. His dedication to the health of US decathletes is unmatched. You've heard me talk of his state of the art Gold Medal Motion facility tucked away in little Antigo, Wisconsin. He has grown so passionate about the decathlon and been so selfless in donating his resources and time to help struggling decathletes. Doc has worked on a number of us throughout the past 4 years. He traveled to Athens in 2004 with us to care for Tom Pappas and Paul Terek (members of WGA at the time). He's been to many of our hometowns whether to show support at a golf tournament or for emergency treatment. He's been to 4 of the past 5 US Championships including 2 Olympic Trials and extends year-round open invitations to us for treatment and/or relaxation at his home and facility. All this being said, I will be traveling to Beijing with Doc, his wife Reva and son Grant. I'll be his "media" guy, taking photographs,conducting a few interviews and writing some stories on his impact on the decathlon in the US. Our travel is all set for August 14-23 and we will be in the Olympic Stadium to watch the decathlon on August 21-22. I am looking forward to this opportunity to travel and experience the Olympic Games for a second consecutive time. Look for much more frequent updates as the games approach.

Decathlon cut short by fouls and a nagging ankle

2008-06-30T09:17:00.003-05:00

This is one of the hardest recaps I've ever had to write. After a relaxed run in the 100 meters, I was eliminated from any contention in the meet as a result of three consecutive fouls in the long jump. I got myself in a whole by fouling my opening attempt. I made significant step adjustments to avoid the same on the second, but still managed the slightest of fouls. I had no other option than to back up another foot, execute and go for broke on my final attempt. It wasn't meant to be as again I fouled by just a touch. Everything stopped in that moment.
I wanted to continue to compete so I moved through the shot put managing 14.57 before getting to the high jump. This was kind of my deal breaker going in. It was the only event that really bothered my ankle and I had only jumped 1.94m and 1.98m since surgery. I felt like I had the "pop" in warm-ups and as long as I hit a good takeoff, the pain was not unbearable. The stadium was getting pretty full at this point with upwards of 15,000 just watching the decathlon high jump. I tried my best to still have fun and compete given the circumstances. I opened at 1.90m (6' 3") and had first attemp clearences at 1.96, 2.02, 2.05, and 2.08 (6' 9 3/4). My second attempt at 2.11 my takeoff foot hit a section of track with a lot of loose pieces and my foot slide and ankle turned before the spikes caught on the track. This was pretty much the end of it as we determined the cost/benefit of continuing simply wasn't worth it. I didn't want to do any further damage to my ankle. After spending some time at home, I'll be getting another evaluation on my ankle to see whats going on. It could just need rest, something it really hasn't had since surgery.
I'm sorry for not "getting it done" here! Part of me feels like I let a lot of people down. Thanks again for the overwhelming support I've received over the past couple of weeks.
It won't end like this.... I will be back!

God Bless
chris

It's about that time.....

2008-06-22T11:12:00.005-05:00

It seems like only yesterday we were counting down the months to the trials and now we find them a mere 7 days away! We will be arriving in Eugene on Thursday night and the decathlon begins on Sunday morning at 10am PT.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who have been such a vital part of my life on and off the track over the past 4.5 years. There has rarely been a week go by when I haven't received an email or message through my website of encouragement from someone.....everyone from my middle school gym teacher and former competitors from high school and college, to someone else named Chris Boyles who "googled" himself and just wanted to say hi and good luck. I wish I had the time to send a personal email to all of you (but it would take awhile to send 500+ emails ;) ). It has been a truly humbling experience to see the selflessness and generosity of so many people! Know that, while a million "thank you's" still seems inefficient to me, I will be giving everything I can and leaving it on the track next week. I know I will feel the presence of you all from afar.

I have included the decathlon time schedule and tv schedule below. Please note that the competition schedule listed is PACIFIC TIME and the TV schedule is EASTERN TIME!!

Real-time results can also be found online: http://www.usatf.org/events/2008/OlympicTrials-TF/schedule.asp

....and in case you didn't see the article put out by the Wall Street Journal this week ranking the World's Greatest Athlete's, here you go (the results may surprise you): http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-GREATEST08.html

Decathlon Competition Schedule

June 29 - Day 1

10:00am - 100m
10:50am - Long Jump
12:00pm - Shot Put
1:15pm - High Jump
3:00pm - 400m

June 30 - Day 2

11:30am - 110m HH
12:20pm - Discus Throw
2:35pm - Pole Vault
4:45pm - Javelin
8:35pm - 1500m

TV Schedule

June 29 - 7:00-8:00pm ET - NBC
June 30 - 11:00pm - 1:00am ET - USA

Pan-American Combined Event Championships

2008-05-27T21:33:00.002-05:00

Heading off early tomorrow morning for Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic and the Pan-American Combined Event Championships (formerly called NACAC). This will be my 4th year competing here and will serve as my first full decathlon of the year. I'm excited about the opportunity and using this as a tune-up for the trials next month. Sorry I didn't follow-up with a recap from the Deacon Combined Event. Some good things came out of that meet for me personally. The highlight was my training partner, Chris Helwick, putting up a very consistent and solid meet with a huge PR of 8017.
Results for the Pan-Am meet should be found at the IAAF website and then clicking on Panamerican Combined Event Championships.

recap and deacon multi preview

2008-05-13T17:51:00.002-05:00

Hope this finds you all doing well. Can't complain down here too much except for the amazing weather system that moved through the end of last week (a tornado actually touched down just east of Winston-Salem)....Crazy!!! I'm continuing to get the kinks out and progress. I competed last Friday at UNC Chapel Hill. While hardly blazing yet, my hurdles improved over .25 seconds to 15.10. The discus also improved over the previous week to 43.65m (just over 143'). The shot put is staying consistent over 15m (49'5") which is right where we need to be. The lackluster performance came in the 200m where I ran a sluggish 23.46. This obviously comes from the lack of running workouts and consistent training over the past 6 weeks, but each race compounds and the times will continue to drop and distances continue to improve. We (Wake Forest) are hosting a Decathlon / Heptathlon tomorrow and Thursday which serves as a Olympic Trials qualifying meet for post-collegiate's. My house is serving as a "bunk house" for some of the athletes. I will not compete in the full decathlon as my opener is scheduled for May 31-June 1 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I will most likely compete in most of the runs, all of the throws and possibly the vault. It's still a bit early for me to high or long jump at competition intensity so I'll sit those events out for sure. Coverage and results can be found on Wake Forest's website (www.wakeforestsports.com). I'll follow-up sometime before the weekend. Thanks for all of your support! God Bless, Chris

slowly but surely

2008-05-08T20:28:00.003-05:00

Just an update to let you all know the progress of my recovery and training. It's been just under 6 weeks since the surgery on my jumping ankle and I must say that I'm very pleased with the progress thus far. I didn't exactly think that I would be sprinting at top speed, hurdling and even jumping (with minimal discomfort) so soon. We competed at Duke last Sunday night in the 3 decathlon throws as well as the hurdles. It was the first time I had come out of the blocks or worn spikes over hurdles since USA Indoors. This was a competition to begin to knock off the rust and get back into competition mode again. I ran "ok" given the lack of hurdling and speed endurance training.....15.41. The 3 throws were as follows. Discus - 41.29m, Shot - 15.08m, Jav. 56.72m. I finished the meet healthy and was able to get a full week of training in this week that included more speed work, finally a lactic acid workout (which wasn't easy), hurdle work and more specific event work. With every training session I'm getting back into it!
We leave bright and early tomorrow morning for Chapel Hill where I'll again hurdle, throw the discus and run a 200. Thanks again for all of the emails of encouragement. Although I'm not able to high or long jump at a very high intensity right now, I'm confident I will be back to form in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead, my first decathlon will be the Pan American Combined Event Challenge in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic on May 31- June 1 as a prep meet for the Olympic Trials June 29-30.
Below you'll notice the newest addition to my garage. Thanks to Wake Forest's extensive renovation to their weight room, Helwick hooked up this pretty sweet setup! You'll notice JCJ (Joe Cool Jesus) hanging from the rack. That was courtesy of Colin and Beth Davidson back in 2005 ;) ) Thanks guys !!!

2008-04-25T17:10:00.002-05:00

Good news.......picked up a pole and actually got off the ground from 5 lefts today! Tomorrow will be 1 month after surgery so I can't be more pleased with the progress. This was the first full week of daily impact. We got in a couple of running tempo workouts, some hurdle mobility work, short-run jav throws, shot put work and full discus throws. I feel, at this point, like I will be ready to compete in a couple events at Duke next weekend.........very good news!

Up and running

2008-04-20T16:02:00.004-05:00

Everything has been progressing very very well less than a month out of surgery! For the past couple of weeks, I've been back in spinning classes again (reminiscent of last year when I spent 2 weeks with my legs spinning when I broke my toe). The first week I spent here at Wake taking classes in the rec center as well as working on strength, balance, and flexibility as well. Week 2 I flew out to Las Vegas to spend with Meg (greatest woman in the world). I took my spinning classes at 24 hour fitness and was actually able to get on a real bike and cycle through Zion National Park in Utah! Quite amazing!
This past week, I started jogging and even got into some tempo running by the end of the week. I got out to the track late this morning and threw some discus for the first time. Everything feels great and hopefully we'll be able to start getting into more things this week!
Again, thanks for all of the notes of encouragement that I've received over the past few weeks.

Update

2008-04-06T11:41:00.003-05:00

Just to give a brief update on my ankle. I saw the doctor again on Friday. He again expressed just how pleased he was with the surgery and progress thus far. I hoped that meant I would be given the green light to start biking / swimming and getting back to work. Unfortunately, he wants me to be a little more patient and wait another week. I never thought I'd feel this good this soon so I guess it's best not to jump the gun here and listen to the doc ;) Been spending a lot of time working on flexibility, core strength, and a lot of other lifts doing whatever I can to maintain and get my heart rate up. Thanks for the many emails of encouragement and support that I've received throughout the past couple of weeks!

Feeling Great

2008-03-29T17:23:00.004-05:00

3 days removed from surgery now and everything seems to be going great! I saw the doc today and he reiterated just how pleased he was with the surgery and how quickly my ankle seems to be healing. I'm off of crutches already and can walk normally. I experience minimal pain the first night after surgery and that's been it. I'm confident this rehabilitation process will continue to go smoothly and that I'll be back into normal training regiment within a couple of weeks. I'm instructed to give it another week until I even start biking just to be safe. It's pretty hard to do considering I have no pain, but at the same time understand the rational. The 2 pictures attached show a pretty significant different in swelling and that's only with 24 hours elapsing.

Thanks for all of the encouragement!

God Bless,

Chris

Success

2008-03-26T15:06:00.002-05:00

Sitting with my leg kicked up after a successful surgery this morning. Doc Teasdall said it went very well and they removed some scar tissue and cleaned up my ankle while being very very delicate. It was very good news to hear that everything seemed to go so smoothly. I've been home for about 3 hours now and I still don't feel any pain or discomfort......hopefully it will stay that way! I'll be sure to update the progress on a regular basis.
Thanks for all of your prayers and support!

Time

2008-03-24T16:24:00.002-05:00

Yet another long delay between updates for which I apologize. Lots has
transpired since the WI Elite heptathlon. We had our USA Indoor National
Championships which I felt as though I was well prepared for and excited to challenge for the National Championship. It wasn't meant to be as I crashed over a hurdle in training a couple days before the meet and had a couple of cortisone shots in my foot/arch 2 days before the meet. I managed to make it through the meet and finished in 3rd. Since then, my left ankle (the one I injured badly in Holland last fall) has been bothering me quite a bit. It had been feeling great all through fall conditioning and even the beginning of the indoor season as we jumped from short approaches. As we moved back to full approaches in the long and high jump especially, I guess the added force on my ankle was too much. Since my first indoor meet jumping from a full approach, it's progressively gotten worse. I saw a foot/ankle
orthopedic last week and had an MRI. This revealed something called an osteochondral defect of the lateral dome of the talus. Many times apparently this can be healed through rehab, but this isn't the case with me. We made the decision to have arthroscopic surgery to repair my ankle and remove any bony fragments that may have become dislodged. The surgery will be taking place this Wednesday. Recovery can vary, but we are certainly being optimistic and I will do everything I can to expedite the recovery to get ready in time for the trials. It's been a pretty frustrating past couple of weeks for me, but I'm confident we are making the right decision and that I will be ready to go in June.
Thanks for all of your support!

God Bless,

Chris

.......

2008-03-08T17:03:00.002-05:00

day 1 just finished. we'll call it a pretty rough 4 events. just pretty tentative in mostly everything. currently in 3rd place 91 points out of 1st.......which is almost hard to believe.

60m - 7.25s

LJ - 6.65m - very hesitant on my penultament and just didn't have it. can't recall ever jumping even close to that bad before, but just have to play the hand I'm delt and tough it out.

SP - 14.11m - wasn't executing very well out of the back.

HJ - approach was all over the place. this event wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as the long jump and i was at least able to salvage a respectable mark of 2.07m

I'm not out of it by any means given the fact that the scores aren't really that high this year. Just going to press on and see what tomorrow brings. The crazy thing about the multi is that you never know........

USA Indoors

2008-03-07T09:10:00.003-05:00

Heading out today for Chapel Hill for the USA Indoor Combined Events National Championships. The body has been hanging in there. I had a few problems with the bad ankle from last year when we've taken full long and high jumps this year. We were finishing up our hurdle practice on Wednesday when I guess I decided it had been too long since I had fallen over a hurdle (since high school). I crushed the first hurdle, did a few arms circles in the air and slammed on the ground with my right heel/arch hitting first. A very nice bruise, although not visible, hurt pretty badly. Makes me very thankful for the resources I have at Wake Forest with their training staff and doctors. I have Adam Pecina and Anne Bradley to thank for the help. They put me through treatment and got me in to see our podiatrist almost immediately. He shot me up a few times with cortisone (which I don't recommend) and called another doctor for me who is currently fabricating an insole for my spikes to relieve the pressure from my heel and arch. I'm confident I will be good for tomorrow, but only time will tell.

Congrat's Dale Jr. on the Bud Shootout Win!!!

2008-02-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

It's only right that this begins by acknowledging Dale Jr's big win in the Bud Shootout last night. Been a long drought and this is the best way to start!!

I've been out of commission for the past week as I seriously sprained / strained my back lifting a television upstairs.........yes, I know......not smart! That kept me sidelined for this entire week. I tried to warm-up a little in hopes to compete at App State this past weekend, but it wasn't meant to be and my body just wasn't ready. Finally yesterday I was able to go for a run with no pain whatsoever and today feel back to normal again which is a relief. For those of you who have experience back pain, you know what I'm talking about.
So I go into work today only to find the coolest housewarming gift in the world. One of my co-workers, Mike, who's retired Air Force, made me the coolest deck table and chair. Just amazing the workmanship of it. So much so that I felt compelled to write about it and post a few pictures.
I'm very excited to be training again this week. Later this week I'll be headed down to Daytona, FL again for the 50th running of the Daytona 500!!!! I'll be training at Mainland Hugh School which is just down the road from the speedway. Should be an incredibly fun week with my dad and uncle. Always a good time.......... Go Jr.

The Best Active Rest Around

2008-01-27T19:12:00.001-05:00

Having just finished a heptathlon yesterday, we found it appropriate to get out an engage in some therapeutic active rest. Doc Draeger took care of that with some sweet sleds and a HUGE hill. We're talking mini-ski slope here. It made for some amazing runs down the hill. The best part was that we had a snowmobile to get back up to the top. After numerous runs down the hill, we ended the day snowmobiling through the trails. So much fun......

This picture certainly doesn't do the hill justice!!!

Below is a copy of the email I sent out a few days ago recapping the Wisconsin Elite Heptathlon:

This email comes to you from the much improved warmer temperatures of the former frozen tundra of Wisconsin. In particular, Dr. Curt Draeger's Gold Medal Motion facility for a few days of rest and rehab after our Wisconsin Elite Heptathlon.
Chris Helwick and I made the trip to the mid-west. Lela flew to Boston to compete in the Boston Reebok Indoor Games (in which she beat the world's #1 heptathlete Carolina Kluft in the long jump, will be televised Sunday at 3pm).
We were greeted in Madison with temperatures well into the negatives and windchills rumored around -30 at times. I don't care who you are.....that's cold!!!
At any rate, I pricelined a hotel for us for $45 and ended up getting the Radisson (strongly suggest trying priceline if you haven't used it before!!!) where we stayed Wednesday through last night. The entire staff at the University of Wisconsin was so incredibly welcoming as Big Will gave us the grand tour of the football stadium and other athletic facilities which are quite amazing! They also fed us a huge buffet dinner after day 1 of the hept so a huge "Thank You" to them for their hospitality!
Now for the meet review:

60m - 7.23
I was overall pleased with this performance. I felt as if executed relatively well through my acceleration phase which has been our main focus.

LJ - 6.83m (22' 5")
This was the low point of the meet. First time we've jumped this year. I just couldn't seem to get my step on. I couldn't seem to hit the board and found myself reaching at takeoff and blocking myself out.

SP - 14.95m (49' 3/4")
We've spent quite a bit of time talking about the shot recently with our trip to NH and all. I feel confident now that I can go into the ring every time and throw right around 15m which is a significant improvement.

HJ - 2.06m (6' 9")
This was a very strange event for me. I haven't really jumped from a full approach this year. We've stayed away from it mainly because of my ankle injury from the end of last season. I started out and jumped the first 2 bars from a 5 step approach and then moved back to full. I was feeling a little discomfort in my ankle especially if I didn't cross over my last step and hit a great takeoff. I feel fine now, but I definitely noticed it throughout the event causing a slightly sub-par performance.

60m H - 8.24
Dr. Draeger worked on my after day 1 and I felt great going into today's events. I ran as well as I could expect today in the hurdles. I was a very clean race and I was pleased with the time.

PV - 5.00m (16' 4 3/4") Indoor PR
After a good hurdle race I decided to tweak my initial plan of jumping from 6 lefts in the vault. I felt I would probably max out at about 4.80 from 6 and wanted/needed to jump a little higher as the hurdles gave me a "boost" in my meet. I moved back to 7 and, thanks to the generosity of U of Wisconsin, had a pretty good pole selection that enabled me to jump very well considering we haven't vaulted much at all this year so far. After my 5.00m clearance, I decided to shut it down and save the energy for the 1000m.

1000m - 2:47.86 Lifetime PR
I was determined well before this meet that I would do whatever I had to do to run under 2:48. We've run more this year than ever and I also feel like my confidence and metal approach to running is way better than it's ever been. Thanks in part to having Chris to run workouts and train with. I ran relatively even splits coming through the 800m in 2.13 high and finished as well as I could.

My point total was 5842 which was a significant lifetime personal best and honestly a bit unexpected given my first day point total. I'm excited about the performance and feel like we can build well off of this for the rest of the year!

Helwick did some very good things including a 6.97m (22' 10") jump after 2 fouls. He's been working on making changes in many events which put you on a learning curve.

After we cooled down today, we drove with Doc up to his place in Antigo, WI and have been receiving the royal treatment. He and his family are such servants and always go way above and beyond to make us feel so welcome. We've already spend time on hydro therapy massage beds and in the infra-red sauna tonight. So much that I'm very tired now and am looking forward to a great nights sleep.

I hope this finds you all doing very well and enjoying your weekend. I think the temperature may have crept near 30 today so I expect to see everyone here in shorts tomorrow.

Dart Mouth

2008-01-11T16:14:00.001-05:00

Been quite awhile since any type of entry. I have no legitimate excuse except that it's been chaotic moving into a new house......... I'm writing this from the very wet, Hanover, New Hampshire. Helwick, Lela V. and I have been up here since Sunday training and working on our throws with Coach Gordon and Wallen at Dartmouth. We've been staying with the Dodd's family. Tyler Dodds is a decathlete at Wake Forest and his family and welcomed us into their home and spoiled us rotten. We have truly been humbled by their selflessness.
The timing of the trip was such that we were able to stay and compete in a few events of the Dartmouth Relays heptathlon today and tomorrow.
I feel like all of us have made significant strides and heard a few new things this week that I feel will benefit greatly throughout the year.

60m - 7.28s - Felt like I executed and ran well. I just didn't have much turnover after a long week at the track and this early in the year, I feel pretty good about it.

LJ - 4.26m - The results will show 4.26m (somewhere close to 14'). We had no plans on jumping but to be able to continue in the competition, we had to make an attempt. Tried to make it a competition and see who could jump the closest to 4.77m. Helwick won that contest jumping 4.63m. All in good fun.

SP - 14.50m - After the hundreds of throws and turns we did this week, I felt a little burned out so took it with a grain of salt trying to focus on some of the cues and changes we made. Not being critical.

HJ - 2.08m - The plan was to take a couple scissor jumps and 1 or 2 5 step jumps and stop. I opened at 5' 10" scissoring and did the same at 6'. I then switched to 5 step jumping for a couple of jumps. I actually felt like I was getting pretty good "pop" dispite having tired legs. I decided to keep jumping and actually cleared 2.05m (6' 8 3/4") from 5 steps. I've only felt this good from a short run 1 other time in my life. I feel confident that the ankle is back to 100% and i'll jump well this year. After 2.05m, I moved back to a full approach, but wasn't really ready to handle that speed yet and could only manage 1 other bar before failing 3 times at the meet record 2.11m.

Tomorrow we'll run the 60m hurdles and possibly the 1000m. All dependent on the time schedule as we have to take off for the airport at 2:45 tomorrow.

It feel great to get back into a competitive environment again.

WOW

2007-12-08T01:05:00.000-05:00

A couple of weekends ago, my parents made the trip south, along with my aunt and uncle, to cash in on Christmas gifts from last year. My mom got my dad the Richard Petty Driving Experience where you actually get in and drive a NEXTEL CUP car!!! Ironically enough, my dad got my mom the Jeff Gordon ride along (passenger to a professional driver). My aunt Kathy also got my uncle Sam the Driving Experience. They scheduled it for Lowe's Motor Speedway so I could come down and watch. It really was one of the coolest experiences watching my uncle and dad literally fly across the track. My dad maxed out in his course and went as fast as he was allowed (around 140.45 mph). Uncle Sam was just behind him right around 139.75 mph. They kicked the tails off of most of the other guys (and gals) out there who drove.
We took a break midday and came back later for my mom's ride along. This was Jeff Gordon's ride along. For those of you who know me well, you'll know that i would rather run back-to-back marathons in the middle of the desert with no shoes on than cheer for Jeff Gordon or really do or be a part of anything associated with Gordon! That being said, when we arrived to check my mom in, she insisted that I sign up and take part as well. After a little debate, I gave in (because I really did want to experience what's it like to go FAST).
Part of me felt sick to my stomach in seeing all of the "24" stuff, but the other part was excited to hit that track. What made everything A OK was when they brought out the car they would be doing the ride alongs in........... it was the #8 Dale Jr. Budweiser Chevrolet. I couldn't believe it!
After a short wait, my mom hopped over pit wall and crawled into the car which was at the entrance to pit road. Once secured, the professional driver HAMMERED it all the way down pit road and into turn 1. As she got out of the car, the expression on her face was priceless! Loved it! Wasn't scared at all (which really did impress me as I was ......we'll call it anxious).
A few minutes later it was my turn. As soon as I crawled in the car, I turned to the little wee man driving who could barely see above the dash (and I'm not exaggerating), and told him I wanted him to drive as fast as he could without wrecking! I got the thumbs up, was buckled in, and off we went!!! It was like a drag race down pit road and into turn 1. Now I've done a lot of "thrill" activities in my life including skydiving and bungee jumping. This, BY FAR, was the most intense thing I've ever done!!!! You're going down the backstretch so fast (about 170 mph) and you see a near 90 degree turn in front of you and think "there's no way.....there's no way". His foot didn't come off the gas and yet somehow that car stuck to the track and didn't fly up into the wall. The g-forces on your chest in the turns literally felt like someone was stepping on your chest.
It certainly gave me a new appreciation for the skill it takes to drive those cars, that fast with 42 other drivers on the track sometimes only inches away.
If you ever have the opportunity, I really encourage you to try it. Even if you hate NASCAR, it's the best amusement park ride you could imagine.
I put up a few pictures from the weekend on my website HERE!!!

2007-11-27T18:11:00.000-05:00

A Happy Thanksgiving to all! My thanksgiving feast consisted of 2 return trips to the Chinese buffet in Orlando, FL reminiscent of a scene from "A Christmas Story". I made the drive down to see the Messiah College men's and women's soccer teams compete in the D3 Final Four. The men were shooting for their 4th straight title while the women looked to capture their 2nd in 3 years. The Messiah turnout was amazing and both teams fought valiantly, but the men came up short in the semi-final while the women made it to the National Championship game before dropping to Wheaton College (Ill.).
Although the outcomes weren't as we all had hoped, it was still a great time. I stayed with college friend and current Messiah head baseball and assistant men's basketball coach Bryan Engle. He put the hurting on me not once, but twice in mini-golf! Through one of his Kentucky friends (hi Mel), we had the opportunity to check out an Orlando Magic vs. Miami Heat basketball game. Had an unreal Sundae at Ghirardelli's in the Disney Marketplace. This was fun. I was sitting at a table with my buddy Bryan, his friend Mel who works with the NBA's Orlando Magic, her roommate Jackie who has the most amazing job.... The job every kid dreams of having.......she trains dolphins for a living!!!! Her friend Peter rounded out the group. Peter is a Air Force training pilot. He actually flew an Air Force plane to Orlando to visit. Such an insanely diverse group of people with some of the coolest jobs around. It made for some very interesting and educational conversation!
It was a very relaxing and fun weekend until I began the trip home. Ignoring my initial instinct to drive through the night (as I did on the way down to avoid traffic), I left Sunday morning and was stuck in some of the worst traffic and congestion I've ever seen!
In our training, we're doing some testing this week to gauge improvements (at least hopefully) in clean, squat, bench, push press, snatch, standing long jump, overhead shot, and 328m run. I think I have my tentative indoor schedule set and is posted online.
I know I've slacked in updating this blog so I will once again make a conscious effort to update more frequently. Again, thank you to all for your constant encouragement and support!

2007-11-16T10:30:00.000-05:00

Let me start by saying I'm very sorry for the nearly 2 month delay in sending out any type of update. I guess the last many of you heard was when I injured my ankle during warm-ups of the vault in Woerden, Netherlands. To quickly touch on the condition of my ankle....... it's doing significantly better. I feel comfortable saying it's about 92% right now and Lord willing, will not be a problem this year. I spent virtually every waking moment of my 4 1/2 week off-season working at The Home Depot (and in the training room) to try and make up some of the hours I missed throughout the season. I guess I shocked many of the department heads and managers being around so much I was selected as the Sales Associate of the Month!!!! ;)
We are just about to finish week 7 of training. It's been going very well thus far. The dynamic of our training group with Chris Helwick (U of Tennessee grad) recently moving here, along with Lela V. is a lot of fun. This is going to be a great year!
I don't have an exact date when the indoor season will begin this year, or when I'll first compete, but the indoor season will be taken pretty lightly this year as we focus on peaking for the Trials in late June.
I feel like there have been areas of my training that I have avoided in the past for numerous reasons (although mainly financial). Some of these include regular massage and starting on a supplement program (which I have recently done). If I'm going to fully commit to this and really see where I can go, why would I ignore these important areas. It just doesn't seem logical to sacrifice so much and not FULLY COMMIT!
I don't want to get into all of the details now, but some of you know that as of recent, I can no longer receive tax-deductable donations. It's somewhat complicated so I'll spare the details for now.
I can in now way begin to thank everyone enough for their support whether it be through prayer, finances, or a simple email of encouragement. From a financial standpoint, it's never been easy for me to ask for support, yet it's something that I've had to do in order for me to continue my pursuit. It's been so neat to see this newsletter list continue to grow throughout the past couple of years to a number that now exceeds 400!! I am truly humbled and blessed.
As this year comes to an end and 2008 is fast approaching, I am making an effort to raise somewhere around $12,500. This may seem like a large amount to some of you. There are a few things that led me to this figure. First off, last year I had $12,000 in track-related expenses. This includes paying for Scott when he traveled with me. Everything from airplane tickets, hotel rooms, rental cars, meet entry fees, meals while on the road, equipment and the list goes on an on. This year, we probably won't travel quite as much prior to the US Championships (Olympic Trials) as in previous years, so we can put 100% focus into bringing our "A" game to the trials. I do, however, want to be able to receive consistent massage as well as stay on my supplement plan. For 2 years now, Scott has probably spent well over 1,000 hours either writing my workouts, watching my workouts, or thinking about my writing my workouts. He's done all of this virtually for free and out of his love for the event, only getting a portion of my prize money (which we all know isn't a whole lot). I want to be able to pay him a stipend. Something is better than nothing here as I am forever indebted to him for his commitment to me. I would also like to be able to fully cover hotel expenses myself (so Chris Helwick doesn't have to pay). Here's my rationale. There are a few people whom without their help, I wouldn't be where I am now. One of those people is Paul Terek (for those of you who are new, I lived/trained/worked with Paul for nearly 3 years). He took me under his wing and helped me out more times than I can even recall I'm sure. It's part of the multi-event family. He was in a situation where he was able to do that for me. I want to be able to do the same for Chris and help him "get his feet wet" in the life of a post-collegiate decathlete.
I hope this all makes sense. Ideally, I'd like to have 25-30% raised by New Years. I will post weekly updates on my main page with regards to the status of reaching my goal to give you an idea of progress. For those of you who are computer savvy, or Ebay savvy, you can send donations via PayPal to boylinator@aol.com. For those who prefer our US Postal Service, you can mail donations to:

Chris Boyles
3011 Loch Dr.
Winston-Salem, NC 27106

I feel like it's also important for me to say that a $5 donation is received just as well as a $50, or $500 one. In fact, if everyone gave $5, it would put me very close to my New Years goal.

Again, it is with great humility and sincerity that I say "Thank You and God Bless"

Chris

I feel like at the end of this journey, I may write a short book on my experiences.

Best of luck to Coach Brandt and my Messiah Falcon's Men's Soccer team as they continue their exciting journey through the NCAA tournament this weekend on Saturday and Sunday at Shoemaker Field. For more information, check out their website HERE!!!

Rest.....

2007-08-27T03:36:00.000-05:00

This meet didn't come off quite like i had hoped. After day 1 I felt like I put myself in a position to win, which obviously was the goal. Even after the hurdles and a rough discus, 7700+ was still managable. I was warming up for the vault doing a run through and stepped in a crack in the pit and violently sprained my ankle. I heard a loud pop and it hurt pretty badly. I thought initially it was broken. I had it checked out at the hospital and there is no fracture, just a violent sprain. The crazy thing is they have no ice here. It took me 7 hours to find even a pack that was relativel cold so this is not going to get much better until I get back home.
Helwick sucked it up and ran an absolutely amazing 1500m sitting behind ben hazel until 200m to go and then took off beating him by 9 seconds and setting a pr 4:22 after back-to-back meets. That moved him into a tie for 2nd with 7602 but he lost the first tie breaker. Lela also had an impressive meet with her 2nd highest score ever 5925 (would have beaten all girls at world champs!) which placed her 3rd.

Panda's, Poles, and Petro

2007-08-24T05:47:00.001-05:00

It's been a wild 10 days to say the least. I'll start by saying that the US Team once again defeated the Germans in Bernhausen by over 1,000 points. The team returned to the states on Monday but Lela, Chris Helwick and I remained and traveled to Woerden, Netherlands (where we are now) for another multi-event!

The trip from Stuttgart, Germany to Woerden was an interesting one. Below I am copying the happenings of the last 24 hours from the viewpoint of Chris Helwick.

"The problem initially started when our poles could not make it from Frankfurt, Germany to Stuttgart, Germany for our first decathlon. Fortunately however, the airport was nice enough to drive them down. As soon as this happened, Chris and I knew our poles would not make it on our next flight from Stuttgart to London and then London to Amsterdam, and after spending 3 hours in the airport talking with a British airways representative and her hard-to-find supervisor, our suspicions were confirmed. The only other option was driving, and preferably a third party. This option however was impossible because no one was able and/or willing to ship a couple of 17 ft. long pole bags. Final option: driving them ourselves. Part of our three hours in the airport also consisted of finding a rental car that could hold two 17ft. pole bags on the top. The rental agent insisted in broken English that none of their cars had racks on the top, so Chris, Lela (a heptathlete traveling with us), and myself wandered over to the rental company’s storage area and found numerous cars with racks. One was a Volks Wagon Passat station wagon, which would have been perfect, and the other six were Fiat Pandas (roughly equivalent to a Geo Metro with a little more head room). Naturally, the VW was already reserved…. so off we went with our Fiat Panda for the cool price of about $300 USD for a 24 hour rental (never rent a car in Europe).

The poles fit fine on the car; they just stuck out about 5 feet from the back and a couple feet in front of the hood. It was a pretty funny sight to see which is why I have attached a picture of the car in full force. The trip began with the three of us packing ourselves and all our bags into the car at 5:30 in the morning so that Chris and I could take Lela to the airport (she was still going to fly). After a quick drop-off, Chris and I take off in our Panda only to realize about a half hour later that we were going the wrong direction… it was very early… and dark... Finally we got on the right track and were headed north through Germany and into The Netherlands. We were about half way through our trip, cursing down the German Autobahn at about 140 km/h, when we notice that we are very low on gas. We were rather optimistic, however, because we actually had about an eighth of a tank and we had just seen a sign that said a station was 20 km away. Well, let me give you a little word of advice if you ever find yourself driving a Fiat Panda (but just so you know, it’s a bad idea to begin with): the last eighth of the tank goes a lot faster than all the others… We feel the car sputter a few times before finally loosing all power about 7 km from the station. Fortunately it was on the top of a big hill and we managed to coast down it for over a kilometer. Chris was driving on the shoulder (Hogue knows what I’m talking about) because we were not nearly keeping up with traffic on the Autobahn (as expected), even though we reached speeds of about 100 km/h going down this hill. I won’t go into full detail of the conversation Chris and I had, but we decided I would run to the station, get some gas, and then come back… but trust me, everything was considered. And so you know, neither of our cells phones would work. I take off down the road in the drizzling rain with a few Euro in my pocket to get a couple litters of gas when a service vehicle stops in front of me after about 1 km into my journey. I explained my situation even though I don’t think he understood a word I said because after I stopped talking he looked at me for a second, pointed to the passenger seat, and said, “Sit.” We drove in reverse for over half a mile on the shoulder of the Autobahn until we reached Chris and our Panda. He gave us some gas, I gave him some euro, and we were on our way. The potentially 2 hour long problem turned into a 15 minute disruption, and I felt very fortunate, all things considered…. That was about the extent of our best adventures, even though the entire trip was constant adventure. The rest of the trip went well and I was shocked that we didn’t get stopped at the border. We google-mapped our way to the track in Woerden and finally had a chance to relax… it was a couple days I will never forget and a couple days that I have learned some valuable lessons from. Traveling with poles in Europe is extremely difficult and is something that takes planning and often times some creativity. "

I will send out a full recap upon getting back home the middle of next week. Hope you enjoy the picture. There are actually 2 sets of poles on the top and we filled the car with 6 full bags along with Chris and I.

Hope this finds you all doing well!

2007-08-03T15:37:00.000-05:00

Finally made it back to Winston very very early in the morning on Wednesday. I've been the walking dead for the past 9 days or so with some type of flu or upper respiratory infection. Left me with very very low energy levels and sore throat that's lingering around. I've tried to "sweat it out" in the sauna the past couple of days. My energy level is getting better. It's just been one frustrating event and I'm not even sure what caused it.
I'll be back in town for another 10 days before leaving for Europe for 2 consecutive competitions in Germany and then Holland.
I start back up at Home Depot on Sunday before disappearing again. My bosses and the other associates there have all been INCREDIBLY supportive of my situation and goals, making it a pretty fun place to work.
I will be posting pictures up from Pan Ams sometime in the next week.

well....

2007-07-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

certainly was an experience. this is going to be brief as I'm smoked and ready for bed. The quick recap, Harlan and I finished 5-6 and scored pretty poorly. The atmosphere was pretty amazing! Tons of energy! Unfortunately, A LOT of it was in the form of loud "Boo's" towards any and all US athletes.
Crushed a hurdle literally 3 minutes before going into the call room. It ripped my knee open pretty good. So good that I had 4 staples put in after I got back to the village. I actually ran a pretty good hurdle race up to number 10. I'll have to see the replay, but the athlete in the lane next to me hit his hurdle and I think I clipped it as it was coming up. Anyway, almost went down and cost me significant time.
The other excitement came in the vault. During warm-ups, I broke my pole that I usually start the competition with and use for the first couple of bars. I'm not sure exactly what hit what since it all happens pretty quickly, but my IT Band on my right leg felt like it was on fire!!! I didn't feel like it hindered my run too much, but losing that pole hurt as I was forced to adjust and it just didn't work out very well.
I'll leave it at that for now as I sit 5 floors up looking at the atrium of our apartment building in the village. Such a unique experience, it's just a shame that my events across the board were so incredibly "average"!

2007-07-22T08:26:00.000-05:00

Another group of US athletes was 3.5 hours en-route to Rio when (either due to a rader glitch or possible strike at the Sao Palo airport) the plane had to turn around and return to DC. They were not allowing any flights into or out of Sao Palo, and there are no direct flights into Rio. I can't imagine the frustration that would cause. They athletes are supposed to arrive sometime today as it appears as though the airport is up and functioning again!

Took a bus to see the US Women's field hockey team play last night in the semi-finals. Unfortuately I had the wrong start time so we missed all but the last 15 minutes. They won handily 4-1 over Chile. We then road back on the team bus. Pretty crazy as we had 8-10 police motorcycles and an SUV packed with rifle-carrying police! They hold up traffic so there is no delay getting on the freeway and clear the lanes. It's quite an experience.

The word out thus far is that we are getting lots of "boo's". The way I look at it, multi-eventors are not used to any fans/noise so anything is better than what we're used to ;)

One of the best things about this experience thus far is meeting and interacting with athletes from other sports. We've met water polo players, beach volleyball, basketball, syncronized swimming, modern pentathlete's, shooters, futsal and soccer players and the list goes on.

Getting ready to finally compete. Not that we've really been here that long, but it's time to get the show on the road! Competition should be very solid. Despite there being only 13 guys in the competition, we'll see very strong competition from Jamaica, Cuba and Brazil.

Results are to be posted real-time at www.usocpressbox.org

Rio 2007

2007-07-20T18:16:00.000-05:00

So I haven't been able to update the website at all because the company who does my site is currently updating their software (great timing).

We arrived yesterday afternoon in the athletes village after about 21 hour of travel.
Processing in DC went pretty smoothly. I met the US Futsal (indoor soccer with a mini-ball) Team as well as members of the Tennis team and Modern Pentathlon (swimming, running, shooting, horseback riding, and fencing).

Once we arrived, we jumped on a bus at the airport and were escorted via police escort to the athlete's village (pretty cool). Once at the village, we received our credentials and housing assignments. The village consists of ten apartment complex buildings, ten stories tall, each consisting of eight, three bedroom apartments on each floor!!! The USA athletes are all in buildings 9 and 10.

The village has an " international zone" where the HUGE dining hall is, as well as a bank and some shops. They have a huge television streaming the competition live. The food is average. The worst part is finding the right time to eat. With a couple thousand athletes, lines can get long and the servers aren't necessarily too fast!

Took a bus to the practice throwing field today, which is located about 45 minutes east of the village on a military base. The track is right beside the ocean and right at the base of sugar loaf, which is a huge, and i mean huge, rock! Had a little javelin lesson from our throws coach Tom Pukstys (former American Record Holder who's thrown over 86m!) It was productive and hopefully I can transfer a thing or two from today into Tuesday's throws!

It's been tough to find the time to get online here, but I"ll do my best to update more a little later!

2007-07-16T21:00:00.000-05:00

Just got back in town late this afternoon from Dallas, TX. The 2nd day of the multi was pretty good. I was running a pretty good hurdle race until I hit hurdle 8 pretty hard and then Ryan Olkowski in the lane beside me slammed hurdle 9 and went down pretty hard. I ended up crossing the line in 15.08.
In the first discus competition I threw 45.08m, then improved slightly to 46.05m in "round 2" (took 3-4 extra throws after).
I head back to the airport tomorrow for a flight to DC at 2:40pm. We have national team processing on Wednesday morning and then head off to Rio on Wednesday evening.
The decathlon schedule is as follows: (supposed to be televised on ESPN Deportes)

Day 1 - Monday, July 23 - 2:00pm (3:00pm ET)

Day 2 - Tuesday, July 24 - 2:00pm (3:00pm ET)

I'll do my best to update from Rio.

Thanks for your support!!!

St. Marks Tune-up Meet

2007-07-14T21:02:00.000-05:00

Finished up at the track in less than 3 hours today! Most of the athletes at the meet are using this as a tune-up for upcoming International meets and are only doing select events, thus making the meet go even faster.
100m - 11.27
LJ - 3 Fouls - Hit a couple of good takeoffs, but really need to get my approach right!
SP - We threw 2 competitions. The first in a dry ring, and the second in a wet ring to prepare for all conditions. I threw 14.94m in the dry ring and then my worst of three throws in the wet ring was 14.95m with the best being 15.07m.
400m - 51.10

Tomorrow I'll run the hurdles and throw the discus.

Full Gear

2007-07-11T07:18:00.000-05:00

While you may think the majority of the track season is over, the reality is that we are just getting started! I still have a minimum of 3, possibly 4 decathlons left to finish off the season.

I will be heading off to Dallas, TX (St. Marks School) to compete in a few events in a decathlon as a tune-up for the Pan American Games. I'll return to Winston on Monday, July 16 and depart for National Team processing in DC on Tuesday. All athletes in all sports must pass through DC (George Mason University) before heading off to Rio.
We'll then leave on Wednesday for Rio De Janeiro. The decathlon will take place on Monday and Tuesday, July 23-24 beginning at 2pm on both days. ESPN Deportes will have full coverage of the Pan Am Games starting with the opening ceremonies on July 13.
If anyone happens to get ESPN Deportes and wouldn't mind recording the decathlon on DVR, I'm sure my mom would greatly appreciate it as they don't get the channel (you're welcome mom ;) )
There is no site for results this weekend so I will post them after each day of the dec. Right now the plan is: 100m, LJ, SP, 400m, 110m HH, DT.
I'll try to get another note out before heading off to Brazil.

USA National Championships

2007-06-23T23:57:00.000-05:00

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!

USA's Day 1

2007-06-22T16:35:00.000-05:00

Nice to be back in the room relaxing after a pretty quick day 1!
My adductor feels great and I had first day close to being pretty solid.
I was a little hesitant starting the 100m as I didn't know how my leg would feel at max velocity. Ran an average 11.35. 100m times for the most part were pretty slow.
Opened the long jump with 7.18m (23' 6") and followed it with 2 fouls, the last jump being a huge foul of at least 24' 5. Big outdoor pr in the shot throwing 15.33m (50' 3 1/2"). High jump approach was a little inconsistent, but i cleared a respectable 2.08m (6' 9 3/4"). Finished with a sub-par 400m. Feel a little bit like taking the last 8 days pretty much off and missing that one last 400m workout hurt a little.
All that being said, I'm currently in 3rd place with 4094 points, 15 points shy of a day 1 pr. I feel very good about my position and expect to have a solid day tomorrow and have a crack and 8000 points and a top 3 finish which would put me on the world championship team.
Time will tell. Just going out to have fun.......

So Close.....Yet So Far Away!!!!

USA's

2007-06-18T21:09:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the long delay. I've been pretty busy lately with training, work and house hunting.
I'm headed out early tomorrow morning for USA's. The Dec is on Fri and Sat. I got a little banged up in practice on Thursday throwing the jav and have some tenderness in my adductor. I'm confident with another couple of days rest, it will hold up fine.
Looking forward to a quality competition as the field is very deep this year. It's exciting to see the level on the rise as we approach '08.
Hope this finds you all doing well and I'll try to be a little better on updating this more often.

P.S. Still don't have my vault poles from the Dominican. The last I heard, they were supposed to be shipped out yesterday for Indianapolis, but we've heard a lot of "lip service" recently.

The joy of traveling with vault poles....

2007-05-29T20:46:00.000-05:00

This trip has been by far the most interesting experience I've ever had with vault poles. I shipped them down to the dominican 8 days early and they arrived 40 minutes after the start of the decathlon pole vault.
The funny story, however, comes after the competition. Paul's poles never showed up so we only had 2 bags to worry about. Harlan's flight left early on Sunday morning. The shuttle from the hotel left without him so he had to take a taxi and left his poles at the hotel. I was staying an extra day with Brian (vault coach) and Lela. Our goal was to figure out how in the world to get 2 sets of poles back to the US. The shipping companies only pick up from Airports internationally so we had to get them to the airport. We were dropped off in a bus at the airport and I ran inside to talk to the American Airlines rep. They informed me the poles would fit on the plane but they had nowhere for us to store the poles until Monday. I begged and pleaded as we had no way of getting the poles anywhere since our ride had left (or so we thought). Finally they took us through a door back into their office area. There was a short hallway, then a 90 degree turn to another hall followed by an s-turn to the hallway where there was more than enough room to store the bags. Only problem was getting them there! The whole bag would not fit so we had to take out each individual pole and literally bend them around the corner and put them back in the bags. This process took us about 40 min.
We then took a taxi to this beach front resort where we were staying that night. Only $150 for 3 people all-inclusive drinks and food! While it rained most of the day, we had such a great time.
Brian and I then headed back to the hotel in the late morning on Monday to reverse the entire pole process again, pole by pole until we had them all back out in front of the ticketing desks. We checked the poles as luggage and headed to our gate. We were eating a sandwich just before boarding the plane when 2 AA reps came up and told us the flight was too full and unfortunately our poles wouldn't fit! UGH!!!
So right now our poles are sitting in Santo Domingo airport awaiting a non-full flight on a plane big enough to fit the poles.
I still have a set of poles in Italy from last year (they wanted to charge me 700 Euros to ship them back so I left them at the meet promoters house).

NACAC Combined Events

2007-05-29T20:44:00.001-05:00

I got back late last night from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The trip overall was pretty good. I feel like we are so close in a few events that will soon come together. I ended up finishing 4th in the meet and scoring 7791. I feel like I should have and could have won the competition, but the reality is that I didn't. The weather was hot and very humid (no big surprise). The starting field was 16 athletes all in one flight which made the days take a little longer.

100m - 11.40 - I was in the first heat and before the gun even fired, the athlete in the lane inside me was already a full step out of the blocks. The official failed to call a false start and the full race was run. I crossed the line and immediately went back to the starting line to see what was going on and why no false start had been issued. Apparently none of the officials at the start saw it (i'll put the video online soon and you can see just how obvious). An official at the finish line however did see it and issued a false start. We were given 10 minutes before running again. I was excited, but unfortunately we had a nice headwind on the second run and I managed only a .02 improvement.

Long Jump - 7.26m (23'9") - After I big first attempt foul, I jumped 7.26m in round 2 just touching the board and finished with 7.20m in round 3. I was pleased with the consistency of this event although I wanted that first jump fair.

Shot Put - 14.29m (46' 11") - Failed to stay closed and rushed out of the back.

High Jump - 2.06m (6'9") - Felt like I may have been rushing a little out of the back in my approach. I felt like I "had the legs" to jump pretty high, but settled for 2.06m

400m - 50.94 - I really feel like I learned a lot from this race. I finally got out and ran the first 200m very relaxed and easy. I started to get on the gas a little too early (at 200m instead of 250m). I had a pretty sizable lead at 300m but tightened up pretty good. I'm excited to run this race again!

110mHH - 14.73 - This was a solid race for me into a slight headwind. I feel like I executed pretty well and am ready to run faster.

Discus - 44.44m (145' 9") - Opened the competition with a sector foul and a measly 37m second throw. Had to relax and get a good 3rd round throw. I was happy with the recovery given the place I put myself in after 2 throws.

Pole Vault - 4.70m (15'5") - I was disappointed with this event, especially given the fact that I jumped 5.05m my last time out. I had huge height on every bar, but wasn't executing my takeoff very well and wasn't getting penetration into the pit.

Javelin - 57.76m (189' 6") - Never really "hit the tip" on any of my throws.

1500m - 4:52.52 - Ran the race I wanted through 1100m but I couldn't make the legs go with a lap to go.

2007-05-21T12:35:00.001-05:00

It is with great humility that I must once again concede to Sir Eric "Studly" Dudley! He ran a great race and I ran a very tight race. That being said, I'm glad I made this mistake now and not at the NACAC meet next weekend. Hopefully I've learned my lesson after making the same mistake so many times.
I head out Wednesday morning for the NACAC Combined Events Challenge. The location has changed this year from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. The forecast is thunder storms for the next 10 days!
I'm taking my vault coach Brian Clymer which should be a good time. We leave bright and early Wednesday morning at 6:35am. The competition is Friday/Saturday and there is a link to the results page my home page.

It's All About Redemption!

2007-05-16T09:37:00.000-05:00

THE REMATCH HAS BEEN SET!

Coming off a tough and somewhat embarrassing loss to Sir Eric "Studley" Dudley in 2006, the time has come to face off once again in an epic battle that's sure to test both the bodies physical and mental limits!!!
Clearly my skin tight, see-through red, white and blue body suit last year didn't have the negative impact I had initially thought it would on my competitor........while Dudley laced up his spikes literally with bells on so i could "hear him coming"! Little does he know that I have found the perfect defense for his bells! He could use cow bells, "tinker's" bells or even belt out a rendition of jingle bells and it won't be able to penetrate my bulletproof defense!!

A CLOSER LOOK.......
400m vs 400m H 5/18 - Time 1pm

BOYLES (0-1)

Age: 27 years, 14 days (as of today)

Height: 193 cm
Weight: 93 kg
PR 400m - TBD 5/18
Did you know... Boyles once went skydiving with koala bears into the Peruvian jungle as a media hype to promote NASCAR in South America!

DUDLEY (1-0, 1 KO)

Age: 27 years, 27 days (as of today)
Height: 191 cm
Weight: a lot less than Boyles
PR 400m H - 49.59
Did you know... Dudley was the first mammal to score a
perfect 800 on the math section of the SAT's while mountain
biking through the Italian Alps.

2007-05-12T12:11:00.000-05:00

Ran a 328m this morning at Wake. In theory, you add 10 seconds and that's your 400m time. We've run it a couple of times in training before and all had been 40. I felt pretty strong today and ran a decent 39.24. Having Brent run in an outside lane helped me get out pretty hard. He ran a solid 37.67 as he continues to get back into the swing of things from his hip/groin injury this winter.

-------so i was out at the track today and realized that Brent and I actually ran 5m farther than 328 making it a 333m run. I was excited about this as that would take nearly .7 off of my 328m time!

UNC Elite

2007-05-11T22:06:00.000-05:00

Just got back and settled from Chapel Hill. Today turned out to be a pretty good day. It started out a little rough with the javelin. I was trying to make some changes in my approach/technique and ended up getting very frustrated (needed to do a better job of managing my emotions) throwing just over 56m (185').
I had a 3 hour break until I was scheduled to vault and throw the discus.
The discus is continuing to come along. While there are still improvements to be made, I'm throwing consistently farther and all 3 of my throws were farther than my best from the Clemson multi. 46.10m (151' 3"), 45.24m, 45.10m. I got a little off balance and anxious and fouled my last 3 throws.
I ended the day with the vault. I opened at 4.75m (15' 7") with a first attempt clearance, then 4.90m (16' 1") on 2nd attempt. The bar was then raised to 5.05m (16' 7") which would be a pr and 15cm (6") higher than I've jumped in 3 years. I cleared on my first attempt! I then had some "ok" attempts at 5.20m (17'). Once again ran out of poles which is a good thing and gets me pretty excited about the future. For those vault minds, I'm jumping on 5.0m poles now. Today I jumped on a 14.6 flex and 14.2 flex gripping at 15' 4". I attempted to raise my grip on one of the 5.20m jumps but the pole was just too soft.
I was scheduled to run a 400m at Georgia Tech this weekend and was unable at the UNC meet since they contested only field events at the 800m and up track events. I'm going to run a 328m tomorrow at the track with Brent to get in a race simulation.
Looks like skipping out on Georgia Tech may have been a good decision as it poured down rain there tonight and virtually all events were postponed until tomorrow.
That all for now! Good day at the track!

Multi Review

2007-05-11T10:01:00.001-05:00

Getting ready to head off to UNC Chapel Hill this weekend instead of the originally scheduled Georgia Tech. After traveling last weekend then driving to Clemson for 7 events on Monday and Tuesday, the last thing I wanted to do was sit on a bus for a 5+ hour trip to Atlanta. I'll be throwing the discus and javelin as well as pole vaulting today.

For a recap of the Clemson multi-events.........
I guess traveling up to PA and back and then driving to Clemson, SC the day before the meet had me a little flat and sluggish. Even with prevailing winds, I could only manage 11.32 in the 100m and 7.00m (23') in the long jump. The shot was sub-par also only throwing 14.20m (46'8"). I started to feel some tightness in my lower back so I decided shut it down for the day.
The second day also provided good conditions but the "pep" was still not quite there as I managed 14.90 in the hurdles.
I am pleased with the progress of my discus. While I failed to hit a very clean release, I still threw 45.03m (147' 9"). I had been very excited for the vault since I had yet to compete on my "new" poles. I felt very fast and relaxed on the runway and had an easy clearance at 5.05m (16'6") in warm-ups, easily the highest I've ever jumped. I opened at 4.70m (15' 4 3/4") and then passed to 4.90 (16'1"). The bad news is that I didn't clear 4.90m. The good news being that I hit some very good take-offs and moved through my entire series of poles (this means I needed a stronger/stiffer pole than i had). and will be getting another bigger series from Dean Starkey soon! I'm very excited about our progress in the vault and am excited about the future.
The javelin was a bit tough as we threw into a pretty serious headwind and I managed a respectable 57.43m (about 189') given the conditions.

Time to head out!

Clemson Multi

2007-05-06T20:33:00.000-05:00

I just arrived in Clemson, SC after a quick and fun weekend up in PA. One of my best friends I've known for years got married. Originally I wasn't going to be able to go since I was to be in Italy, but as plans changed it worked out and was such a good time. A huge congratulations to Nick and Sarah Walker!!!!
Lela (heptathlete also training at Wake) and I came down here today and will compete in selected events of the Clemson Multi tomorrow and Tuesday.
It's a tune-up for the NACAC Combined Events meet that will take place in 3 weeks in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
We'll head back to Winston-Salem on Tuesday night before hitting the road again for Georgia Tech this weekend for one final competition prior to the NACAC.
I'll write a review once I get back in town.

Italy

2007-04-27T09:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the delay in updates, but with training and work, my free time has been significantly reduced!
We decided not to go to Italy this year! Given the amount of time I missed for my toe injury and the toll that European travel takes on the body, it's training that we just couldn't afford to miss at this point.
My opening dec will now be the NACAC Combined Events Challenge which has been moved to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic this year (May 25-26).
I'm headed to Clemson next Monday and Tuesday for selected events in their multi followed by a couple of individual events at Ga Tech that weekend.
I got a series of 5m poles from a friend of mine, Dean Starkey ('97 World Championship Bronze Medalist), that we jumped on this week. The good news is I progressed through these poles very quickly and it looks like we'll have to move to his next series soon (5.10m poles). For those of you who have no idea what I'm referring to with the poles, I apologize ;)
My body is feeling strong and healthy and ready for this season to get into gear.
I hope this finds you all doing well. Thanks for your continued support.

God Bless,

Chris

back in the saddle.....

2007-04-14T19:43:00.000-05:00

it was good to get out and finally compete again today. the hurdles were certainly an experience as i had a great start, but hit hurdle 3 pretty hard, then got tangled up with the guy beside me before hitting 2 more hurdles. it was not a pretty race at all and ended up running very very slow (15.66). the discus proved to be a more positive experience as i'm getting more consistent. i threw 44.77m (146' 10) with 3 other throws over 44m. while i wanted to perform well today, i also took it with a grain of salt given the fact that i was off the track for 17 days.
now i feel like we can get back to work......

Cautions breed cautions

2007-04-13T22:07:00.000-05:00

At least that's how they say it in NASCAR!!! I was in the weight room on Wednesday lifting and felt like my clean technique was a little off. That being said, i turned my head to the left to check my positioning in the mirror and began the lift with my head still turned. Don't ever do that!!!!
A stabbing pain shot up the right side of my back. I thought I was done! It took me 10 minutes to get out of bed yesterday and I could barely walk comfortably. I saw a doc and got some muscle relaxants and pain killers. I spent a lot of time in the training room icing and using stim. I thought for sure Saturday's competition would be out of the question, but I woke up this morning feeling so much better. I went in for treatment again and decided afterwards to go out to the track and see what I could do. I took some discus throws and block starts over hurdles. It felt good enough that I decided to still compete tomorrow. I'll be running the hurdles and throwing discus. Hopefully I'm on the road to full body recovery and I can avoid any more strange tweaks and injuries.......

Better

2007-04-10T09:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my first day back on the track doing any type of running. Ran a hurdle workout with virtually no pain with the broken toe. This is very promising and hopefully means I'm good to go. I meet with the Dr. again tonight for full clearance. I'm certainly happy with how quickly it healed and now Italy comes back into the equation. Once we finish this week of training, Scott and I will sit down and plan out my competition schedule.
I'm getting 8 new vault poles thanks to on my friends I met while living in CA. Dean Starkey was a bronze medalist in the '97 World Championships in Athens and has a pr of 5.92m (over 19' 5"). Anyway, he retired a few years ago and had some poles laying around that he was gracious enough to pack up and loan to me. They are all pretty big 5.0m poles that should help me out quite a bit as I continue to learn and improve my takeoff.
That's all for now.....

Still Spinning

2007-03-30T16:30:00.000-05:00

The toe is progressing well and I should be back to regular training sometime next week. In the meantime, I've been doing a lot of general strength work and taking spinning classes to elevate the HR. Oh my goodness!! To any of you looking for a good workout, this is certainly my suggestion. I had done it once before with my college soccer team so I knew somewhat what i was getting into.
The team headed off to Georgia Tech today. I decided to stay back and avoid the 11 hours round-trip in a coach bus. I can't stand the smell inside of those busses.....gives me a headache.
The OJOP has been finalized and I finished a very brief orientation last night. I think I'll start working on Monday. The HR and store managers are incredibly supportive and are more than willing to work with me which is very exciting for me. I'll mostly be working 5-9:30 on weekdays when I'm in town.......and NO, I DON'T GET DISCOUNTS :)

2007-03-26T19:43:00.000-05:00

Just found out today for sure that I have a hairline fracture in my big toe on my right foot. It happened this past weekend when i hit it against the toe board while throwing shot in the deacon open. According to the doctors it's a pretty mild fracture and I should only miss a couple of weeks which is far better than the initial 4-6 weeks we had thought.
This being said, we decided it best not to travel to Italy to defend my Multistars title this year. As of now, we are planning on opening up the season with the NACAC Combined Events Challenge which will be held the end of May in the Dominican Republic. I am disappointed that I will not be returning to Italy, but we feel it's the best decision when examining the big picture.

2007-03-19T10:40:00.000-05:00

Been a long time since I put anything up here. I've had my hands in a lot of cookie jars recently and just haven't had the time sit down!
I took the Home Depot OJOP and will be starting sometime in the next 2 weeks. The HR and store managers are very understanding and supportive of the program which is very important and one of the things I wanted to be sure of before getting involved!
The indoor season has come and gone. USA Indoors was an interesting experience as only 4 athletes started the meet and 3 finished. It's sad as it is certainly showing the decline of decathletes choosing to continue training post-collegiately. I could go off on a long tangent there, but I'll leave it at that.
We had our first outdoor meet of the season this past weekend at UNC Charlotte. It was 40 degrees with rain and serious winds on the Friday causing them to postpone all but 4 running events. I ran the 400m, 110m HH and discus. My intentions were to vault also, but with over 30 competitors, it ended up taking 4hr 45m and would have been a waste of time!
I ran 51.41 in the 400m which obviously isn't great looking at the time, but given the circumstances and conditions of the meet, not terrible. I ran 14.72 in the hurdles and threw the discus 43.61m (143') an hour after the rest of the meet was finished on Saturday in very cold weather! It was an interesting way to start the season to say the least.
This coming weekend should be significantly better as Wake Forest is hosting a meet and the temperatures are supposed to be in the mid to high 70's. The plan now is to compete in the first 3 decathlon events on Thursday (100m, LJ, SP), the open 110mHH, HJ and javelin on Friday, and the hurdle final and pole vault on Saturday.

USA's

2007-02-28T22:09:00.000-05:00

It's about that time again for the USA Indoor Combined Events National Championships! We compete this Saturday and Sunday at UNC Chapel Hill. This year it's a huge field with a whopping 5 guys in the meet right now. I could go off on a tangent about this, but it's just very sad how the numbers keep dropping!
I think we're ready to go and it should be a lot of fun as some of the Wake Forest athletes are making the short trip over along with my family and a few other friends. Looking forward to a great weekend and putting together a good score. The link to results can be found on the main page of my website.

Big Orange Box

2007-02-25T14:14:00.000-05:00

Just received word over the weekend that I finally was accepted into the Home Depot Olympic Job Opportunities Program (OJOP). I'll be in touch with the HR manager at the store here in Winston on Monday to talk more about the job. I haven't decided for certain if I'm going to take it yet. A lot depends on their flexibility and understanding (which shouldn't be a problem since that's the whole point of the program).
Should I take the job, I will not be switching over to a Tony Stewart fan (for those who were wondering).

Wake competed well this past weekend at the ACC Championships. Our multi's did a great job with many event pr's and overall score pr's for all 4 athletes (3 heptathletes, 1 pentathlete).

Some of you may be flipping through the channels today and see the USATF Indoor National Championships. Don't look for me there as the combined event portion takes place at a completely different venue a week after the other events. I'll compete this Saturday and Sunday at UNC Chapel Hill. This year will be the smallest field thus far with only 6 men in the heptathlon, half of the number we had last year. It's a shame and really shows the decline of decathletes pursing the event post-collegiately.

Back

2007-02-20T22:24:00.000-05:00

Just got back home to Winston-Salem this afternoon. Good to be back if only for a very brief time as I'll be heading out again tomorrow for Clemson with Wake's team for the ACC Indoor Championships. I've posted a few more pictures from the weekend here and will place the rest in the gallery on my website.

2007-02-18T22:50:00.000-05:00

We got fan zone tickets to go down into the garage / pit area before the race today! You could see all of the cars go through inspection as well as the crews working on them in the garages. Even got to go out to pit road and sign the pit wall in front of Dale Jr's stall. The race itself had one heck of a finish. A lot of the big guns were involved in incident's including Dale Jr with less than 10 laps left. Crazy finish that ended in a crash! The experience this weekend was great and a very memorable one for my first Daytona 500!!

Funny Story

2007-02-17T20:57:00.000-05:00

At the track, they have these huge Nextel Vision screens they use during the race for replays, etc. Before the race, "fans" are able to send text or picture messages that show up on the huge screens. I had taken a picture of my dad who fell asleep before Thursday's race (after driving down to Daytona through the night with no sleep) and sent it to the provided address. My uncle Mark saw me do it and sure enough 2 minutes later the picture of my dad showed up on the big screens right before last nights truck race! It was hilarious!!!

Not going to post the picture. I'll let you create a mental image.

Finally we had some sunshine and relatively warm weather today for the Busch race. Tomorrow we'll be up early and headed into the pit / garage area before the race!
For those of you who can't stand Nascar, sorry ;)

2007-02-15T19:42:00.000-05:00

What a great first day at the track!!! Our seats are incredible as you may or may not be able to tell by the picture. You can actually see the entire 2.5 mile track. My man Dale Jr. nearly got the axe as he was taken out by Michael Waltrip in the first of 2 races that are used to determine the starting order for the race Sunday. Thankfully it happened early and he had enough time to work his way back up for a solid 2nd place finish.

Tomorrow night we'll see the truck race.

Track

2007-02-14T23:02:00.000-05:00

Just arrived in Daytona Beach today! My dad and uncle drove all through the night (and some bad weather up north) to get down here at the exact time my flight landed. They gave me the grand tour of the track and surroundings as they are Daytona 500 veterans (My uncle hasn't missed a Daytona 500 since 1977 and my dad's been coming for about 16 years.) We've got races on tap every day starting tomorrow with the Gatorade 150's, then the Iroc race, truck race, busch race, and the nextel cup race on Sunday. Go Jr!!!

Daytona 500

2007-02-12T22:30:00.000-05:00

I have a confession to make. Many of you probably don't know that I absolutely love NASCAR! My uncle Mark was "die hard" and it rubbed off on my family. My dad and uncle have been going to the Daytona 500 for quite a few years now and I finally got the invitation this year.
Very excited to experience the "superbowl of racing"!!!

Had a solid vault and hurdle practice today! Getting on some pretty big poles now from a short run, which will translate to some serious poles once we start moving my approach back later on this season.

On a side note, I shot a legit 42 for 9 holes yesterday and 3 putted both par 3's.

3 Peat!!!!

2007-02-10T21:36:00.000-05:00

My dad's been coaching the Belliare Elementary School basketball team for quite some time. He helped out when I was in school and took over the reigns shortly after. What he's developed is a dynasty!!! You may be laughing and thinking to yourself "it's elementary school basketball" and you're right, but it's still fun to say. He teaches the kids the fundamentals of basketball and that goes a long way. I think I've figured it out.......when Messiah College wins the men's soccer National Championship, so does Bellaire......and Messiah's been winning a lot lately ;)

Had a good 1500m workout this morning. 600m, 500m, 400m, 300m felt pretty good despite "heavy" legs from last night's competition.

Busy....

2007-02-10T00:22:00.000-05:00

Just got back from Chapel Hill. Very interesting competition as I opted to compete in events that all took place simultaneously. It took me back to the good old college days where I'd compete in lots of events at the conference meet. I was literally jumping a bar in the high jump, then running over to the vault just in time for my attempt. Given the circumstances I felt like I did some good things. The marks weren't all great (HH - 8.36, 8.41; PV - 4.60 - short run, HJ - 2.03; SP - 14.69) but it's very early and thankfully we have time.
Bedtime as I have a 1500m workout at 11am.

Deal....

2007-02-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

I seem to be at the receiving end of peer pressure lately. Beginning with the pressure to change / update my website and now the latest......applying for "Deal or No Deal". I told myself that I was finished after Paul and I failed to get the callback for "The Amazing Race". The story behind the story here is that my girlfriend Meg and her twin sister Shannon did a live audition for the same season of "The Amazing Race" as Paul and I and they actually got a callback. While they didn't make the final cut, Meg seems convinced with the right video (and her help of course since she got the callback ;) ) I have a solid shot at being selected for "Deal or No Deal". So in the middle of work and training, I'm working on the application and video to submit. At the very least, it's been entertaining answering some of the questions on the application.
(e.g.) "How are you competitive in your everyday life?" and "If you were going to be in People magazine, what inside info about you would be put up next to your picture?"

Also getting ready to head off to Chapel Hill tomorrow for an indoor competition. I'll be competing in the 60m Hurdles, Pole Vault, High Jump and Shot Put. This will be my first and last individual event indoor competition before returning to Chapel Hill March 3-4 for the USA Indoor Combined Events National Championships.

We're supposed to flirt with 50 degrees here today! I haven't seen those temperatures in a long time!

Here goes nothing....

2007-02-07T11:12:00.000-05:00

I had never really been into the "blogging" scene, nor had any experience with it before. After some strong encouragement from those close to me that my site needed something new, this is my first step in "remodeling". Thanks to Ope for the insight into this blogging site. For those of you on my email (newsletter) list, I'll still be sending out frequent updates. I'll be posting here on a relatively frequent basis and try to make it as "entertaining" as possible! As always, I welcome your comments/suggestions with ways to improve my website!