This past weekend, I went with my Hawken track team down to the Jessie Owens stadium for the State meet. Due to pesky shin splints, I went down to Columbus to support my friends and cheer them on as they ran the girl’s 4 by 8 and the 1600. (Yes, I’m assuming that all of you know what that means. Because us track runners like to think we’re cool when we speak in our secret code of numbers. And we like to think we’re twice as cool when we measure things in meters instead of the friendly American yards.)
However, as I got distracted while at the track (partially due to my short attention span, and partially due to the angry glares I got from the people around me as a incessantly cheered for the girl’s 4 by 8 warm up laps), I found myself somehow at the long jump pit. Now I don’t know how I had managed to get over there, if I had walked or scootered or floated or flew, but I was suddenly watching the Division I boy’s long jumpers as they got ready to mark up the perfectly-groomed bed of sand. I felt like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, clearly not in Kansas anymore (although, to clarify, I never was in Kansas. I’ve actually never been to Kansas).
These boys flew. And I’m not exaggerating or emphasizing. These boys ran down the runway, leapt into the air, and flew. When spectators do what they do at track meets (spectate, of course), each person ends up being fascinated by a different event. True, at the State meet each event is spectacular in its own way, but there’s always that one event that a person walks away from the track thinking, How? And for me, this event is long jump.
Now I didn’t tell you all this to make you jealous, or to make you feel guilty for not making the trek to Columbus on the first weekend of June. So here’s a video for you of some insane long-jumping! And of course, if I’m going to show you long jumping, than I’m going to show you some of the best long jumping in the history of track and field. This is a video of Bob Beaman, the U.S. olympian who held the world record for long jump until 1991, achieved in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Let me know if you feel the same way about long jump that I do! (And feel free to secretly enjoy the British narration just like I did when I watched this video for the first time.)
However, as I got distracted while at the track (partially due to my short attention span, and partially due to the angry glares I got from the people around me as a incessantly cheered for the girl’s 4 by 8 warm up laps), I found myself somehow at the long jump pit. Now I don’t know how I had managed to get over there, if I had walked or scootered or floated or flew, but I was suddenly watching the Division I boy’s long jumpers as they got ready to mark up the perfectly-groomed bed of sand. I felt like Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, clearly not in Kansas anymore (although, to clarify, I never was in Kansas. I’ve actually never been to Kansas).
These boys flew. And I’m not exaggerating or emphasizing. These boys ran down the runway, leapt into the air, and flew. When spectators do what they do at track meets (spectate, of course), each person ends up being fascinated by a different event. True, at the State meet each event is spectacular in its own way, but there’s always that one event that a person walks away from the track thinking, How? And for me, this event is long jump.
Now I didn’t tell you all this to make you jealous, or to make you feel guilty for not making the trek to Columbus on the first weekend of June. So here’s a video for you of some insane long-jumping! And of course, if I’m going to show you long jumping, than I’m going to show you some of the best long jumping in the history of track and field. This is a video of Bob Beaman, the U.S. olympian who held the world record for long jump until 1991, achieved in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. Let me know if you feel the same way about long jump that I do! (And feel free to secretly enjoy the British narration just like I did when I watched this video for the first time.)
No comments:
Post a Comment