Well, it's finally over. The main event for the majority of us here in the states. For some reason it didn't have that feeling to me. It might be because I'm getting older.. and faster and with that your goals tend to change some. This year there was some pretty good racing like usual the sophomore through pro men I thought was pretty exciting which is good. I ended up on the wrong side of some of the excitement and was apart of a four person fall in the 1000m that ended in three disqualifications which must have been a decent thing to watch but it's not much fun being involved in it. By the way, that was the first time I was ever DQ'ed at Nationals! Anyway, I ended up getting 2nd overall in junior men which is pretty good, Jake beat me and if I had to pick someone to beat me it probably would have been him anyway. Still I don't feel that Indoor Nationals had that flare it usually does but hopefully it'll be back next year and stronger then ever.
One thing that I don't necessarily like about indoor nationals is that some people train all year and their goal is to do good in a relay. Or the first day that are looking forward to doing this or that in a relay. I've never been there with that and I don't grasp that idea very well. I have always been a division first kind of person and I think that is the only way it should be. For me it was always that you train so you skate good.. you train to win in division and relays are just for fun. That's honestly how I approach indoor racing and I just think too many people are getting away from that and more focused on the relay aspect.
I saw a lot of the world team members skate good at indoor nationals and I just hope they realize their goals should be much higher then anything they can accomplish on a 100m indoor track. Four weeks is a long time and residency is only like 11 days so I don't want to deal with people being out of shape to be honest.
For most people have fun relaxing and travel safe.. but for 24 of us train harder and realize what your goals should be if you haven't already.
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2 comments:
Keith: I am glad I came over to talk to you and Kimani, even briefly. I also felt nationals didn't have its usual feel this time. As for training for relays, I'm 50, and this was my 5th nationals. I'll never be in the Olympics, and I do it for fun. I started competing because someone needed me as a relay partner, and skating with my friends is what is important to me, so division is a warm-up for relays. Probably you weren't talking about the older people, but perhaps that explains it a bit?
Ami Raynor
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