Confess! Anyone here ever run Track? (College, HS or Jr High)

[wildhorses]

come on...I'm not the only one....Fess Up:P

[Phillycat]

1. Track and cross country - with cheerleading in the winter

I liked to stay busy. :D

[wildhorses]

2. 50 yard dash, 440 relay and 880 relay and long jump

how about you?

[Phillycat]

4. Mile and two-mile.

And I was only ever good at the two mile. I was all distance, no speed. :)

[xmas74]

6. I did one and two also.

I was also a fielder. Shotput, discus and javelin.

[wildhorses]

22. here's to stamina and staying power!!

:applause:

[fishnfla]

3. Varsity track in high school 4 years

went to state twice in the 880, set several school records

[OhioBlue]

15. WOW!!

very impressive!

[wildhorses]

23. yes,,, VERY impressive

:wow::applause:

[xmas74]

5. Track and Cross Country

in jr high and high school. It's never been much of a secret for me.

I would have kept it up but was injured my junior year (landed in a pothole at a cross country meet and tore up my knee). I miss it.

[wildhorses]

24. sorry to hear about the knee

:cry::hug::applause:



and DAMN that pothole!!!

[xmas74]

45. Things happen.

Isn't that life?

[RetroLounge]

41. I did the same thing my sophmore year

Running in a meet in the Forest Preserve, stepped in a hole and tore up my left knee...

RL

[xmas74]

46. I knew quite a few who ended their time doing that.

Potholes, various animal holes, even tripping over whatever might be in the path.

At our school invitational we always went over the course the night before to double check. That doesn't mean that things couldn't show up at a public park between our check and the next day.

[wildhorses]

47. sorry to hear that...like xmas74 just said....things happen...

:hug:


I still say DAMN the hole!!:P

[Rising Phoenix]

7. high school track

very shortly I came down with an URI and had to quit....ah well.... don't care much for running.... I'm a kick boxing, striptease kinda girl

[wildhorses]

25. did I hear some one say FAN dance?

or is that pole dance?:P:applause:

[Broken_Hero]

8. I was a field man

in hs my discus was at 120 ft, shot, 45....

in college, my disc was 124, shot was 53, and the hammer(which was completly new to me, but awesome), was 100...I was never very good at the hammer...:(

[LostInAnomie]

10. Me too.

HS field events. Disc 120 Shot 47

I wasn't good enough for my college team.

[wildhorses]

26. here's to the good ole high school days!!

:applause:

[wildhorses]

48. well at least you gave it the old college try!!!

and here is to personal bests:applause:

[MikeH]

9. I became involved with the track and cross-country teams in college

In high school I was not at all athletic, and could not run fast, and had trouble in gym classes.

However I had been concerned about being physically fit.

In college some people had got me interested in running, for fun, for fitness, and perhaps running with the track and cross country teams.

The track coach at the college is somebody who has now been at the college for 40 years and has become a legend. He was especially good at inspiring people to run for fun, and reach for their personal bests.

While I was at the college, though I was never fast enough to be close to being competitive, I did run on some cross-country meets for the fun of it, and for the companionship, as much as for any other reason.

And running is something I have been doing ever since, even now at age 55.

And by running in an area one might sometimes learn a little about the area. To put that another way, by taking a jog, one might learn some geography.

[wildhorses]

27. here's to personal bests!!

:applause:

[KitchenWitch]

11. I did Jr High track

Hurdles, high jump and long jump.

[wildhorses]

28. with your height, I bet you were a GREAT asset!!

good to see you :hi::hug:

how is the packing going?x(

and to your track career:applause:

[Fleshdancer]

12. Yep. Mile and half mile....

I have no idea WHY I ran track since I grew up in Texas though...extremely HOT.

[wildhorses]

29. well, let's hear it for running in the Texas heat!!

:applause:

[Fleshdancer]

39. lol! and just think....

I only exhibited signs of heat exhaustion twice! Freakin' nuts.

[SeattleGirl]

13. Yep, all 12 years in school.

I liked the relay races the best of the running events. Also did long jump and high jump.

[wildhorses]

30. .......

:hi::hug::yourock::applause:

[OhioBlue]

14. yes in high school

I LOVED IT! I was a sprinter - my races were (only 4 per meet) 100m & 200m dash, 400m, 800m and 1600m relays - did the long jump once just 'cause we needed somebody - I think I might have gotten us a point for the meet in that one, probably b/c there were only 4 or 5 girls entered in the event.

We actually broke school records with the 800m and 1600m relay teams and went to State my Junior year in the 1600m - unfortunately, I dropped the baton in State finals...

The only other great accomplishment is that we were Conference Champs my Senior year - which was actually an incredible high b/c our school had normally been at the bottom of the Conference in Girls' Track.

[fishnfla]

16. Dropped baton in state finals 1600 meters

OMG, my very last race of my 4 year varsity career was our 1600 meter relay at state. It was our best chance ever to place at state. We had 3 seniors who had been running together for 3 years, and a really talented sophomore KR at third leg. I was second leg. We had second place, and a great shot a 1st, when the hand off between KR and the last leg was fumbled. Sometimes,when I cant sleep late at night I can still hear that baton hitting the asphalt.....
We were of course disappointed and KR was nearly crying on the quiet bus ride home. I was team captain and the coach gave me this look like: do something. So I got up and said something to the effect like, hey it was always our goal just to make it to state, we are lucky to have had the chance and we should be proud. I said to KR, we're all fixin' to graduate, but your career is just started, do us a favor take this lesson and learn from it. He went on to have a great athletic career, got a college scholarship and was a great hockey player and popular coach until he died young.

Man, that was a long time ago

[OhioBlue]

17. yes, my teammates picked me up the same way

Going into State finals, we were ranked 15th out of the 16 teams - we ended up making it to finals, so our new goal was to place in the top 6 as we would be in the program for the next year. I was 3rd leg. Our 1st leg runner was actually the quickest and our anchor was quick, but we usually tried to get her a lead as she was against the toughest runners. I think we were in 5th or 6th when I came around the last corner, I felt someone coming up to pass me, so I moved to the outside of the lane to make her run further around me. My hand with the baton in it, hit her knee and the baton flew over my head. You must know how your body starts to fight you in that last 50 - 100 meters of the 400 meter sprint... plus, i'm fighting off the tears, so I'm almost hyperventilating, I go back, pick up the baton, sprint back to the line, stumble into the grass and collapse - my mind swirling.

We were the only competitors from my school to make it to State and we had a lot of people come to watch, including my dad (the only athletic event all through school he ever came to watch) All I could think of was how I had let so many people down. I wanted the earth to just open up and swallow me... turned out everyone was supportive - I can joke about it now and just be proud of what our team accomplished, but at the time it was all I could think about, for weeks, everywhere I went, I felt like I had LOSER pasted across my forehead. I remember walking into the grocery store, thinking, "do they know?" lol....

[Ptah]

21. No Fair! you've made me cry.

:cry:

You sure tell that story well.

[OhioBlue]

43. aww Ptah,

:hug:
at least I got a good story out of it... A little more: we are located in the North eastern part of Ohio, Football is HUGE, and most of us are fans of the Cleveland Browns... I mention this to explain my nickname when I went back to school (this was in the late '80s)... my friends thought it funny to drop their pencils in class and ask me, now referred to as Ernest Byner to pick them up....

<i>Cleveland Browns and Bernie Kosar (b): The Fumble, 1987. Actually two fumbles. In the AFC title game(sound familiar?) Kevin Mack fumbles early in a rematch with the Broncos. The resulting loss of TD results in a browns-down-by-7 scenario later in the game. With less than two minutes to play, the Browns threaten to tie the game at 38. Kosar’s handoff to Ernest Byner on the draw play results in a goal-line fumble, recovered by Denver. Denver wins, again. The Browns never again field a team worth speaking of, and eight years later are dissolved. Meanwhile, Horseface goes on to a Hall of Fame career. </i>http://perfidy.org/index.php/weblog/comments/cleveland_sports_handmaidens_to_destiny/

their antics were actually pretty funny... I had a couple of pretty sarcastic friends that knew if I could laugh about it, I would get over it.

[fishnfla]

42. Aw shucks OhioBlue thats tough

is that why you're blue? Just kidding.

Well this story might cheer you up. When I was a freshman, my first biggest race was the city meet where all 3 high schools in Bumscrew, Wisc competed against one another. Halfway thru the mile run, one of the straps on my athletic supporter snapped. I finished the race first ("with flying colors" was the joke I heard for too long.)

I was only a freshman and hugely embarrassed when I went to the coach and said 'my jock strap broke' 'Yeah, we know' was his reply. I looked over and all the timers were cracking up. The stands were full too.

I had to run in that meet for 3 more years.

[OhioBlue]

44. yep... that story made me laugh!!

it also brought back visions of a certain pole vaulter in HS... lol..


edit to add: thanks for going down "memory lane" with me. I think my HS years and "track season" were some of the most fun I've ever had. Aside from track itself, our girls' team was pretty close, pizza parties (told ourselves we had to load up on "carbs) - lol, water fights, staying in the hotel for state, the trips to and from the meets, so much fun.

[wildhorses]

33. thanks for sharing....

:cry::hug::applause::yourock:

[wildhorses]

31. EXCELLENT

:yourock::applause:

[cobalt1999]

18. Cross country and track in HS

and still running over 25 years later. Somehow the knees, ankles, and bones have all held up.

[wildhorses]

34. here's to taking calcium?

:P:shrug::applause:

[cobalt1999]

51. if by that do you mean lots of ice cream, then yes!

[Piltdown13]

19. Yep...middle school through college

At one point or another, I did everything from the 100m to the 1600m, plus the long jump until sophomore year (I gave it up because the risk of injury was too great given my lack of improvement). I also did cross-country in high school, mainly just to stay conditioned for track. I probably should have been a middle-distance runner/long sprinter (500-1000m), but I was used as kind of a "utility runner" in high school (I wouldn't really embarrass myself at anything, so if we needed a warm body...) and unfortunately the lack of specialization hurt me in college. Still, I loved it! I switched over to cross training after college -- I figured that I shouldn't push my luck after 10 years of competitive running without a major injury) -- but I'm thinking of getting back into road racing soon.

[wildhorses]

35. here's to being a team player!!

:applause:

[GaYellowDawg]

20. Cross country and track

I ran cross-country for 3 years. Best 3-mile time - 16:59. I placed 12th in a field of about 150 at the UT invitational in 1984. I was at best our 5th runner. Sometimes I was counted for scoring, sometimes not. Our two best runners could do right at about 14 flat, whereas I couldn't do better than about 17:30 unless I had a great day.

My sophomore year, I ran the mile, 2 mile, and 880 every track meet. Still can't believe I was ever in that kind of shape.

I ran track for a year and a half - I quit track in my junior year. I'm pretty sure I was being groomed for the 880. I was a faster sprinter than the long distance runners, but slower than the sprinters, so the coach had me warming up with the distance runners (a 4 mile run!) then interval training - 440 sprints with the sprinters. We had required times to do the 440s, and if we exceeded them we had an extra 440 added to our workout. 2 minutes rest between the 440s. My goal time was 1:20 and I could put 10 of them together in one workout. I was getting pretty good and was working my head off for my coach. Then, he did something stupid.

I was also the lead role in the spring production of Tom Jones at the local community college, and the director was good enough to schedule my rehearsal times for after track practice. It was tiring, but I loved being able to do both. Then my track coach decided that he was going to make me choose between track and the play over a weekend, apparently out of sheer ego. He told me this 3 weeks before the play went on, far too late for me to quit the play; the lead in Tom Jones has WAY more lines than everyone else. I told him that if I were to quit, I'd destroy the play, and offered to do extra workouts during a free period before practice. He refused and put me in a terrible position, because I was on the brink of becoming a real team leader in track and really was seeing some hard work pay off. My parents were pretty mad with him and offered to call him, but I was furious with the coach. I told my parents that a)the director hadn't made me choose and b)if the coach decided to make me choose I would choose against him. That Monday, I went into the coach's room and tossed my track uniform on his desk. He looked surprised and distressed. I told him that the best way to lose loyalty was to openly question it, turned my back on him, and never ran for him again. I still haven't forgiven the son of a bitch.

[wildhorses]

36. here's to crossroads...and the twists and turns that happen in

our lives:cry::applause::yourock:

[LaurenG]

32. Me too

50 yard dash, 440 relay and 880 relay and long jump - standing and running. I thought it was a blast too.

[wildhorses]

37. here's to having a blast!!

:applause:

[hfojvt]

38. what? Grade school does not count?

I went out for track in the 6th grade. I suppose in most places that would be Middle school. I am not sure why I did not continue into Jr. High. I considered myself a long distance runner, but the track coach put me in the 100 yard dash where I got smoked. The longest grade school event was the 880.

When I was a HS senior our cross country team was kinda weak, so I considered going out for that, but never did. The cross country coach was the Jr. High PE teacher and he hated me for some reason. However, we did have an 8th grader who was running varsity cross country when I was a senior. He ended up going to the Olympics in 2000 as a marathon runner. However, he did not do well there. He got stomach flu before the race, but was not expected to medal anyway. He was quoted in some running magazine as saying "my going to the Olympics represents the low point in American long distance running" or words to that effect.

[wildhorses]

49. grade school counts...and thanks for the Olympic inside story

:hi::hug::applause:

[RetroLounge]

40. Track and Cross Country

Freshman and Sophmore years of High School...

RL

[wildhorses]

50. way to go RL!!!

:applause:

[Roon]

52. I did, but I was too fat to run

but I could really toss that shot put!