brush with a former olympian
Jul. 26th, 2012 10:18 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lauradi7dwI went to part of the juggling convention last week in NC, bracketed by visiting my parents. One of the annual features is a track meet for jogglers, which (if not obvious) is people who juggle and run at the same time. Short clip here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkrC4SK6Obg&feature=related
I can run but can barely juggle 3 beanbags. Still, I decided with one day to practice that I would enter a couple of the races. I came in 2nd in the >40 year old female category, because there were only 2 of us in that group. I probably had the world's slowest times (I said that to one of the volunteer timers, and the official who heard me said "ma'am, nobody keeps track of record slow speeds"). I had to keep stopping to pick up the bags I dropped. By contrast, there were 6 or 7 men in their >40 class, all good jogglers, and lots of teenagers (male and female)in theirs. We need to recruit more middle aged women for the races. I'm sure any randomly chosen woman juggling in the gym could have done better than I did. The same official made the equivalent of the St Crispin's day speech to me, saying that I should feel better about it than all the people who had stayed in bed, because at least I showed up. The other official, track coach Inez Turner at Winston-Salem State, where the races took place, was also very encouraging. If nothing else, it was worth going to have the privilege of talking to her, because she competed for Jamaica in the 1996 Olympics. Now I have her autograph as well as the memory of her kind words.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inez_Turner
Also amazing - there was a teenager who had been joggling on his own (had heard of it, is a regular runner and juggler, and taught himself to put the two together, but he had never met another joggler) who came with his mother from Nashville (430+ miles) just for the joggling races - they arrived that morning, spent the day in W-S, and were driving back that night or the next day. He came in 3rd in the <19 1600 meter race, after a couple of drops due to tiredness or nervousness allowed the guy who'd been behind him for most of the race to pass during the final lap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkrC4SK6Obg&feature=related
I can run but can barely juggle 3 beanbags. Still, I decided with one day to practice that I would enter a couple of the races. I came in 2nd in the >40 year old female category, because there were only 2 of us in that group. I probably had the world's slowest times (I said that to one of the volunteer timers, and the official who heard me said "ma'am, nobody keeps track of record slow speeds"). I had to keep stopping to pick up the bags I dropped. By contrast, there were 6 or 7 men in their >40 class, all good jogglers, and lots of teenagers (male and female)in theirs. We need to recruit more middle aged women for the races. I'm sure any randomly chosen woman juggling in the gym could have done better than I did. The same official made the equivalent of the St Crispin's day speech to me, saying that I should feel better about it than all the people who had stayed in bed, because at least I showed up. The other official, track coach Inez Turner at Winston-Salem State, where the races took place, was also very encouraging. If nothing else, it was worth going to have the privilege of talking to her, because she competed for Jamaica in the 1996 Olympics. Now I have her autograph as well as the memory of her kind words.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inez_Turner
Also amazing - there was a teenager who had been joggling on his own (had heard of it, is a regular runner and juggler, and taught himself to put the two together, but he had never met another joggler) who came with his mother from Nashville (430+ miles) just for the joggling races - they arrived that morning, spent the day in W-S, and were driving back that night or the next day. He came in 3rd in the <19 1600 meter race, after a couple of drops due to tiredness or nervousness allowed the guy who'd been behind him for most of the race to pass during the final lap.
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Date: 2012-07-26 05:19 pm (UTC)