in meets by coach mike on 03 May 2008
How can you tell where a track coach lives? Look for the yard that needs mowed! Spring time is busy time for track coaches, baseball coaches, softball coaches, the weather controls your decisions, the weather controls your life. Cold, rain, sun, thunder, lightning, wind, nature dictates your life. Time to get caught up, lets start with the dual meet with Mater Dei, we had the meet, we won. What was good? Most everything, we won every event but one, what did stand out was the pole vaulter, they have become real vaulters, over 12′ and getting better. Next up was the Marion Relays, we were excited about this meet, there would be two team trophies handed out and we had a shot at one of them, probably second behind Granite City but they’re a large school. We started out well, by winning the high jump relay and was doing well in the triple jump and long jump, Tony Bartley was back into the 40 foot range as was our sophomore Q Garrison, so that was good. The pole vaulters were in good shape both over 12′ and the freshmen over 10′6, then the flash in the sky, far away but after the death last year of the young man from Carbondale from lightning, the meet was shut down for 30 minutes. After checking the radar more storms were on the way into the area, so the meet was canceled. Loaded up the bus and the team headed home, I stayed. My daughter had flow into Nashville, TN to run a 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning, so the whole family was going down to spend the weekend and watch her run. My wife and oldest son had went down earlier in the day, while my parents and my youngest son and his girl friend were meeting me in Marion and we were all driving down after the meet. We had a very nice weekend, the weather was good for running, cool with a little early drizzle. We found our way around the coarse after a small amount of confusing twists and turns. Audrey did very well, ran under 2 hours, looked good, looked like she was having fun. Some of her friends came down from Chicago to be there also, so along with her brothers, her husband, her friends (Laura and Mark) all ran with her for awhile. Nashville seems to be a neat city, lots of stuff to do down town and some good BBQ to eat, might go back sometime and ride that fake bull! But Audrey as your father and former coach, no marathons!