100m hobby racer

Yes, hello - I've finally found the time to sit down and write something on my blog :) And you guessed it, it's a special occasion that is forcing me to do it!

Over the last weekend, the senior provincial championships were held on the track! As trainer (and used to be athlete) I always love going to watch athletics meetings, and it was no different this time. Friday produced perfect weather conditions for running and my athletes used the situation to their full ability. We had entered the 800m (Mani G) and the 5000m (Mani W, Wolfi and Warti) - also Ladies (Elisa and Vroni).

Mani G started the ball rolling with an excellent 2 min 16 s for the 800m (which won't set the world on fire, but for a first time EVER 800m it wasn't bad) - which also brought him 3rd place in the senior championships (he can still run u18). Alas (as you might have guessed) this was also the last place. This didn't dampen our spirits - no it just strengthened our resolve.

Along rolled the 5000m, and I was sure that Mani W would produce an excellent result. And so it was. Mani ran a good race for an in-experienced track athlete (his first ever 5000m) and started maybe a tad too fast. He was running under the top 3 until the first km, which they went through in 3:06 (a little too quick), and then things got progressively slower - 3 km in 9:45 and finishing with 16:32. These are still early days though, and I expect that this will get faster before the end of the season. Wolfi ran a very controlled race, rolling the 3:30's off perfectly and going through 3 km in 10:32. The 4th KM was a bit slow, but after overtaking some athletes and going on his own, he was able to do a blistering last KM and finished in 17:25s - also a nice PB for him. Warti had a bit of a shocker - due to his foot - and was disappointed with his run (and it was the only bad run over the entire weekend)!

In the ladies, it was left to Elisa and Vroni to hold up the Henndorf flag, which they did with style finishing 4th and 6th respectfully in their first ever track race, and hopefully not their last. Unfortunately Elisa missed the 5000m time she had to run by 1,2 s and so she was very disappointed, but the time was still OK, and she has enough time to reach her goal!

Saturday dawned bright and early and we had the first shock immediately. Warti was injured and could not run, which meant there was a person missing from the relay. 1st replacement Reini wasn't answering his phone, so it was left to me to pack my shoes and head for the track in what would be my first ever relay event. That is not where the afternoon started however.

First there was the 400m, which both Wolfi and Mani G were contesting. They finished 5th and 6th respectfully, both of them dipping under 60 s. Following this was, for me, the highlight of the racing weekend, the 1500m for men. Here Mani W was running and I was quite nervous as to how he would go (and so was he.....). The race started nice a slow (tactical - good) and Mani was able to keep up well with the bunch. At the bell things really started to happen, but Mani didn't lose contact with the first athletes. He moved up to third place on the back straight and started to challenge for 2nd place on the final straight. His superior strength saw the day through and he beat the 3rd place man by a whisker of a hair (0,07 hundreds of a second) for second place.

And then in a moment of stupidity, I let the boys talk me into running not only the 4 x 400m, but also the 4 x 100m relay. We had NO chance in the 4 x 100m as the US team are considered one of the best teams in Austria, but it would be fun. After getting tips on how to do a change over from one of the marshals, we were ready. Wolfi started and handed over to me. He arrived about 3 s after the US team had gone through and so I started my "very slow speed wobble" towards Mani G and in the process I passed the US team who had failed to make a correct changeover - ha ha ha ha - we were leading. Our changeovers went well and you guessed it - we were crowned provincial Relay champions in the 4 x 100m relay, in the scintillating time of 56s - and yes - we were the only qualified team!

In the 4 x 400m, there wasn't much difference, except this time the US team didn't drop the baton and so we were relegated to second place - still not bad. I ran the 3rd leg and pushed quite hard, hard enough that I knew the legs were completely sour by about 300m. I pushed on to the finish but my inexperience at changeovers showed and I over extended myself and fell to the track hurting my arm quite badly - however I was able to give Mani the baton and he brought our relay home.

So all in all, a great weekend, and one that will go down in the history for us, when 4 hobby orienteerers and long distance runners won the Salzburg championships in the premiere team sprint event - the 4 x 100m Relay! Cool!

Here are the results - when they get put up!

And here are some photo's - thank you Wolfgang!