Also, not only was my last post the 100th post to this blog, that day also marked 100 days until the World Cup! Which meant 99 days until my 23rd birthday [ohmygoodness, I cannot escape adulthood any longer], which meant about 110 days until I left KZN, which meant... about 4 months until I go home! Ah!
So I pretty much figured the KwaZulu Natal Championships was the end of my South Africa athletics career. It was fun, not stressful and at the end I got a cute little medal. But then I got a phone call from KZN Athletics telling me that I was invited to compete in the Yellow Pages meet in Durban that Friday. Cool. The professional athletes go to these meets around the country, and at every stop they usually invite some of the best local athletes to compete with them. Unfortunately, I was going to be busy with my work and wouldn't be able to make it there in time. I talked to someone else about it that called to tell me that I had to come and watch it and when he found out I was invited to compete he said I had to compete because it was where all the professionals competed... for people that know track, think The Golden League, but for South Africa. So I pulled some strings and barely managed to get over there. But I got there!
When I got there I was amazed. It was like a real track meet-- music, people in the stands to watch, organization. Everything was covered in Yellow Pages yellow and black. Above is a photo I took when I first got there before the sun set [oh yeah, it was also an awesome night meet under the lights!]. It was so awesome. I was so excited.
So excited, in fact, that I wasn't even phased by the fact that my competition had her Berlin'09 shirt on from the track and field World Championships. I didn't care that everyone else there was supposed to be much better than me. I didn't even care that I hadn't trained at all in the last two weeks. I looked around and smiled the whole time. SABC2, one of the national stations, had cameras everywhere... even the camera that stays at the board for long jump to show exactly where your foot landed in slow motion when it broadcasts on TV. So cool.
There was an incredible tailwind that night.... so I don't think any of the jumps taken were legal. Going into the last jump I stood in last place with a 5.76m, the best I had since coming to South Africa. And last place is exactly where I expected to be-- I didn't mind at all. I was still smiling. On my last jump I felt a tornado of a tailwind, heard my Harvard coach in my head telling me to move my mark back and just go for it, and that is exactly what I did. I jumped a 5.97m and moved up to second place, right behind the South African national champ. Woohoo!!! Second!
If you get first place you get a Yellow Pages towel, and apparently in my case if you get second place you get drug tested. That's right, I was then escorted to the anti-doping tent where I was for the remainder of the meet. At first I was excited to get drug tested... it made me feel like a really good athlete. But the fun stopped when I realized someone had to go into the toilet stall with me to watch me pee in the cup. Ummm. No thank you.
Here is the coverage of the meet on the IAAF website: http://www.iaaf.org/news/kind=100/newsid=55682.html
The meet was broadcasted nationally on Sunday.... but I didn't get to see my South African television debut because I was on a bus coming back from Bloemfontein... which will be explained next!
Cool! except for the drug test part. and good job with a personal best!!
ReplyDeleteyeah, drug tests are a little invasive. Had to do one while at UMass, which was done fairly regularly through the year. If anything, my UMass teammates were surprised I never had to do a drug test before at Harvard since a good percentage of the team has had at least one before they graduate. Also, if your urine is "too clear", you have to redo it because they think you have something to hide by flushing it out by drinking too much water... whatever. But congrats on the medal finish!
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