Track is hard! I mean very difficult, a real challenge to the uncoordinated; events like the hurdles, high jump, and triple jump (formerly called”hop, skip and jump”, it must have sounded too “hop scotchy” for big-time track enthusiasts) require a lot of technique and coordination.
I watched a middle school track meet the other night. My 7th grade granddaughter was competing in the sprint races; I was never interested in the sport when I was a kid, so I wanted to see how she would do. When I asked her how she decided what events to enter she said the 100M and 200M because “they get over in a hurry and don’t wear you out so much.” Spoken like a real jock.
I’d never shot any track & field events before so I thought this would be some good practice. I positioned myself at the first hurdle, figuring that might be the only place in the race where the runners would be fairly close. Hurdles are downright brutal, so at this young age I expected lots of scraped knees and bruised egos. At the first jump the girls flew over the hurdle looking like synchronized swimmers; I wasn’t expecting that. Wow! They looked great … well, 7 out of 8 anyway. The runner in lane 8, looked like the jumping horse that loses its nerve at the last second and comes to a complete stop in front of the jump. The runner nonchalantly climbed over the first hurdle and continued on to the next one and repeated that process for the entire 75 meters.
I felt bad for her, then I thought, “Wow, she’s no quitter.” See more track photos here.
Thought for the Day: Success is to be measured not so much by the position one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome. Booker T. Washington (1856 – 1915)
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