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PAC 10 Championships (javelin)

Published by
King Cyrus   May 17th 2009, 5:13pm
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Pre-Blog before PAC 10s

I have done my best to prepare for this meet; I have been cooking myself steaks, pork chops, lasagna, really awesome hearty wholesome meals, ones that will make me feel good. I have been relaxed and enjoying myself. No problems in the last couple of weeks. I am really just super excited about this meet. May 15th (day before) I really noticed how excited I was about this meet. And all night I felt like it was Christmas Eve or like I was going to Disney land the next day. I was so excited about the next day that when I was woken up by the birds in the morning at 6am. It was hard for me to really fall back asleep.

The Wednesday prior to the meet (Saturday) we had shot put competition. It’s a light shot (4K 8.8lbs) just to be explosive. We do overhead backwards throws, underhand forwards throws and overhead forwards throws with a 3K 6.6lbs med ball. I normally do pretty well in the first 2 but Alex really always beats me in the last one. For weeks I would never get close to beating him. I couldn’t understand how I could beat him in other things but not this last one. Alex decided to go first and me second. I asked him if he was sure. And he said he was. First throws were out and he was ahead by a good foot. I was pissed. Then he throws further on his second throw….. So I match it, and I am only a few inches behind him.  He throws again and throws another foot further. It was amazing I didn’t know if I could beat him. So I throw again and match him. We are neck and neck, it was the best competition I had had all year long and it was in practice. We kept throwing further, and matching throws till the last throw, Alex didn’t throw further, he left the stage open for me to take the win, if I could only throw a few inches further. I got jacked up, let out a roar on my throw and got him by 7cm (2inches).

Now you may ask y did I go off on that tangent when I should be blogging about PAC 10s but to me this practice meant a lot to me, it meant that no matter what happens, if someone is ahead of me all meet, and there is a competition for first, that I have the drive and the power, to come out on top in the end and to win it. That meant a lot to me. And I can't wait to see what happens at PAC 10s

PAC 10s is over now. And I came out on top.

It was a little weird, I felt very relaxed, ready to go. Ready to pop one. But there is also this thought in your mind that you haven’t thrown in a long time, that 3 weeks is too much rest, that you have forgotten how to really do it.

It was a hot day! 77 degrees and I was sweating. We received news the day before that we would be throwing in the second of 2 flights that day. This was somewhat of a problem. We get 30 minutes on the field and then first flight goes, then only 15 minutes to warm up for the second flight.  This just meant that we would have to warm up with first flight, then wait around for 45 minutes (getting cold with each minute) and then warm up again for 15 minutes before our flight. This is something we are not used to. I don’t think anyone is used to, so it’s kind of hard to judge how to properly warm up, but not get exhausted. We warmed up well. I was feeling good and Alex and Britton said they were feeling good too. We went inside to rest in the shade; we kept warm by throwing light med balls and relaxing on some high jump pits as well. We got the call that it was the last round of the throws and we came outside. The best throw was 208’7” so if we threw further than that then you could make it to finals

First throws were underway I threw hard; I thought it was good, but when I looked up it only landed slightly over the 70m line. I wanted to scratch it super bad, it was a terrible throw. Corey white had already thrown 248’ so I was just in second. I was super disappointed. But I made it to finals already with that throw so I knew I had plenty of throws to make it happen. Corey white threw again and skied one so high. It was crazy. Probably 200 feet in the air and he was pissed, he scratched it. Alex threw and knocked me in 3rd place with a new PR of 235’5” I was happy that he PRed but I was now sitting 3rd place. I have won every meet so far and I wasn’t about to allow it to happen again.  My second throw I knew I had to really hit it. Again I thought I had a good throw but the jav landed short of the 70m mark. It was just a few weeks ago that I was landing javs just under the 80m mark. So I was really pissed. It just wasn’t my day! There are days in the javelin (and all throws) that you may just not have your day. I felt like I wasn’t going to do good all day. I also felt like the Olympic trials were happening all over again. At the trials I had 6 weeks off and because I was coming off of an injury my timing was way off and I did not throw well. I felt the same way. 3 weeks off and my timing was all off. I wasn’t using my hips into my throw.

I kept on seeing my coach Christina after every throw. And asking her what I was doing wrong, they felt good and strong, I felt relaxed, and like I wasn’t putting too much pressure on myself for this meet. But something wasn’t going right. I was reminded of Wednesday when Alex and I were throwing shot puts for competition and how we went throw for throw, and that it’s not over until the last throw. But I also knew my reputation this year as my first throw always being my biggest throw. I have not thrown all 6 throws since our second meet (Stanford) so this was going to be a test of endurance for me. I didn’t want to be known as “one and done Cyrus”, I wanted people to know that I am competitive and can have big throws on anyone of my 6 throws. I wanted people to fear that I could pop one at any time. But I was also worried that anyone today could pop into first. Kyle Nielsen from Washington warmed up really well and I was worried he would pass me and Alex up, and I knew Ryan Young has throw 250 and could throw that at any time. It was really anyone’s game, if they wanted to take it.

My third throw was no better, so I scratched it; I was going into finals in 3rd place. Which gave Alex and Corey White the upper hand on me, always knowing what they need to throw to win it, and gave them another chance to throw after me.

Finals round came up and I was trying to just relax, there was something that I couldn’t control and it was my heart rate. It was affecting how I threw. I needed to calm down and be confident that I could do it. The difference between my meets after the Pepsi Invite (where I had my big throw) was that I was confident that I could come to the meet and just win it. And with that confidence I could come out and throw 78-80m every week. I opened up finals and threw a miserable 218. I just kept reminding myself that big throws can come on any throw of the competition, I remember at Oregon relays Britton nelson threw his PR on his 3rd of 4th throw, and that we need to keep our head in it, never give up and keep on throwing.

The 5th throw was a little better, I don’t know what made it any better but it pushed me into 2nd place, basically Alex and I had switched spots, from a team standpoint whether Alex got second and I got 3rd or vice versa means no difference point wise so I didn’t feel really good about the throw. It didn’t change anything, but if I could take 1st place and Alex could have 3rd then that’s a 2 point swing. That’s what I was looking for.

I ran over to my coach and I felt like both my big toes were broken; I landed in the push up position after my throw and my feet landed hard (toes first) onto the ground, I was hoping it wouldn’t affect my last throw. Christina told me to go from my full approach. It’s something we kind of we have been working on for the last 2 weeks (which is not a long time). It’s a long approach that should be able to allow me to relax and not have to push it so hard in my final steps to get to my max speed on the runway. It’s just 2 extra steps. But Christina said that I am in second place, I have nothing to lose, and that we need to practice it and get ready for regionals, nationals and USAs. It was going to be an approach that is of professional level, very fast, hard to control, and unpracticed could be very painful. I won’t lie I was not looking forward to it. I didn’t think I could throw from the full approach yet. But I knew that it could not change my current 2nd place status and if anything could only get me into better position. I wasn’t positive where my competition mark (compared to my practice mark) would be. The adrenaline you get in a competition makes your mark much further than because of the added speed. But I didn’t want to change my mark.

I knew I didn’t have much left in the tank, and normally (since the Oregon preview didn’t go well) I don’t like the crowd to get me going, the added adrenaline is too much for me. But I had nothing to lose, I needed to get pumped. I asked the crowd to start clapping. And I was off. I threw and I was thrown to the ground again. I got up and saw the jav stick just a little big past the middle of 70 and 80m lines. Marked off at 76m. I was pretty sure that took the lead, and then the reader board read it of in feet….. 250ft 5inches. 2 feet further than Corey White.

Originally I wanted to throw big the first throw, set the tone, and put the pressure on everyone else, but today all the pressure was on me. But after that throw I enjoyed the position I was in. I had thrown it at the last second, it gave Corey white one chance to throw better than me (rather than all 5). I just had to wait patiently to see what would happen. I watched his throw go up, he had a lot of power in it but it was not thrown through the point, which stalled it out and cost him a lot of distance, but it still landed about middle of the 70-80m line, I was pretty sure I had the win, but waited till they read it off. The called it out 74.09. I instantly praised God for the win, for the ability he had given me to bring home the victory. I didn’t win because of all the training I do, or the coaching staff or facilities at Oregon but rather because God gave me the ability and resources to be good.

I will admit the meet was a little bitter sweet, the series I had was terrible, and the final throw of 250 was not what I wanted. But the drama and the win was amazing. I was quite happy, but overall I have bigger fish to fry this year than just PAC 10s

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