Sea Ray Relays- April 11-12, 2008

This week I headed to Knoxville, TN with UC to attend the Sea Ray Relays. I knew here the competition would be better and I would have a chance to possibly improve my 200 and 400 meter time. I always enjoy attending this meet because it is not as stressful as some of my bigger meets. I am able to go into the meet with a relaxed mind and no pressure. The game plan was to attack the race and see what results. Here at this meet, I also get a chance to compete against some other professional athletes that may train in the University of Tennessee area.

Once we arrived, the weather was nice and warm. They did predict rain for the next day and man the winds were strong! On Friday I would run the 400 and on Saturday the 200. As I warmed up for the 400 meters, I was almost blown away by the strong winds(up to 8 meters per second). I guess I picked the wrong day o run the 400...haha.
Once we lined up in our blocks and the announcer went through the field. He saw this race as being the race of the day...I had won the 400 in 2006, 2007 got second, what would happen in 2008?

I ended up winning the race in 52.23, which was no faster than last week at all but due to the windy conditions that was a good time. Man if I didn't have the wind I would have been at least 1.5 seconds faster......
Coach Jim and Chris were satisfied so I decided that it was a good day of training. I cooled down and then went on to cheer for UC the rest of the day.

I had the 200 the next day and I as excited to try again and get a PR out of the weekend. So again the competition was good for the 200 meters and I ended up second overall running in a personal best in a time of 23.05. So the meet turned out to be a success and to top it off i won a special award from the meet. Just as we were leaving the announcers, called my name at the end of the meet to state that i had won the Athlete of the Meet award. It was definitely an honour and I was thankful. I will let you all know what the award looks like once I get it.

Again thanks for stopping by and remember to live life to the fullest!!!!
By the way if you guys are curious the picture in this blog is from a photo shoot that I did with Cincinnati Magazine for the April issue. The photographer Jonathan Willis did a great job! Check out his site if you get a chance
www.willisphotoart.com

2008 Oliver Nikoloff Meet -April 5, 2008

Hello everyone,

As many of you can imagine I was very excited to see that the weather worked out for the University of Cincinnati's second home meet. The Oliver Nikoloff turned out to be very successful both for myself and the UC Team. At this time in April we usually still see some cold weather and sometimes a little snow. But that wasn't the case at all this time, April 5th was about 58 degrees and sunny.

I was using this meet as a warm up meet to see where I was in terms of my training. After not going to the Texas Relays, like I always do every year, I figured running in my own back yard wouldn't be so bad. I didn't quite have the competition like I needed too, so it was up to me running against the clock. In my heat of the 400 meters I had 2 UC top 400 meter runners. As the gun went off I quickly made up all staggers and was in the lead of my own race. I came to the home stretch with the other girls 4 seconds behind me, all I could hear was Coach Brandon Hon from UC screaming Go Mary...through the line!

I crossed the line alone in 51.22. The other 2 UC girls cam across in PB of 55's. They did a great job and I was proud of them. One girl was slightly off my freshman record in the 400 meters. Yes you may be wondering well where does this put you? I was now ahead of the game,last year at my first meet I opened up with a 51.88 Since it is still early in the season it was a world leading time. I haven't checked lately to see if it is still holding, but my goal of course is to keep lowing my time, each week.

Thanks to you all who attended the meet! Hope you had a great time. If your interested we will be hosting a very big event this weekend called the All-Ohio. We will have all the track teams in Ohio come and compete for the title. It should be huge and we are also having a reunion for current and past BEARCATS!! Hope to see you there!!!!!!

OUTDOOR SEASON......ready, set, GO!!!

Hey everyone,

I'm not sure if you all stayed updated with Team USA this weekend in Valencia, Spain for the 2008 Indoor World Championships. I know many of you are wondering why I didn't attend due to my 3rd place finish at the National Meet. I was eligible to run the relay, but my coach and I already had a plan in place for indoors. Regardless of my place at the National Meet, I would not be attending. Team USA did a great job, I was so excited and nervous for them when I watched the 400 and the 4x400. Fellow 400 meter runners did well excelling to the final and having PB's. Congrats to them!!!!!!!!!

Well today was a very hard day at practice, so hard that I passed out on the pole vault pit afterward. I am happy to be able to train again with no pain! Yes a lot of people didn't know that I battled some injures prior to the meets I participated in this indoor season. The good news that I have is that I am healthy again, and that is nice to know! I was diagnosed with a cyst on my ovary over a month ago and now as of 4 days ago has shrunken and will not be a factor for now. When I heard the news I thanked the Lord!

So back to passing out..hahaha
Don't worry it wasn't a pass out that would require the Emergency Squad. Passing out is track talk for...working out so hard that you feel the intense burn of the workout. Your legs are full of lactic acid, you can barely crawl or walk and the only thing you are thinking about is....HOW TO GET RID OF THE PAIN.

The killer workout was 300 meters...which I usually love. I can't wait to get outside on an outdoor track. We had a lot of snow this past weekend, and it is slowly melting away. After this workout or any hard workout the best thing that I usually do is take a cold cold ice bath. THIS WORKS OUT THE PAIN.
Hope all is well in your life, please be safe and remember working out is good for your health. Try walking or exercising,it can be rewarding!!!!!!!!

Indoor Nationals (The Good, Bad and Ugly)

Well some of you might be a little confused by the title to this blog. But it's how I felt after day 1 of running the 400 meters. Please let me go into more details....
I had purchased my ticket to attend the meet in Boston to leave on Friday morning at 7:40am arriving in Boston at 10:50am. Mother Nature was not very nice, she brought tons of snow, ice and horrible conditions. After getting up at 4am on Friday morning to head to the airport, I was hoping for a miracle.

Soon as I arrived at the ticket counter I saw CANCELED. The flight was rescheduled to go at 10:50am, seeing this made me think I had hope. This small change was just a taste of what my day would consist of! To make the story short after trying to check in at 10:00am, I once again saw CANCELLED. The whole day I was rescheduled to five other flights...after begging and pleading to the Delta customer service. But here's the kicker, all the 5 flights were cancelled one after another. Finally the airline made an announcement that NO FLIGHTS TO BOSTON OR NEW YORK for the rest of the day, or even the next day. I explained to them that I had a meet to get to and please whatever they could do...please get me there. I was tired, mad, hungry and just wanted to get on a plane!

After being rejected several times and being told ma'am there is nothing we can do, but put you on standby with 50 other people. I did not know what to do...I questioned should I just go home? Should I try to find a flight the next day and risk missing the first round on Saturday? I contacted the meet and they were aware of the cancelled flights. They told me to try another counter or different person.

Luck finally came my way, I tried one more individual and he answered my prayer, by this time it was 4:30pm.....that's right I slept, ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the airport that day. He was able to get me on a flight to Manchester, NH at 7:40 arriving at 10:30pm. As soon as I would arrive I would have to find transportation to be taken to Boston in the terrible ice and snow for an 1 hour and 15 min ride.


Well folks, that is what I did. The flight worked out and I caught a cab and finally arrived to Boson at midnight and had to race the next day. I was happy with my time in the 400, because I had a lot going on the day before. I was able to not let it defeat me and make it to the next round. Now after the race I will take an ice bath, get some rest and prepare for the final. Please keep me in your prayers. I hope to have good news for you tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!