I'm writing from my hotel room in Palm Springs, CA - the site of the 2009 NORCECA Championships and Youth, Jr. and Sr. National Championships in modern pentathlon. Now, before you raise your hand to ask any questions, let me cover the basics. Yes, technically I have only been "doing" this whole pentathlon thing for a week, but my coaches feel that the best way for me to learn how things work is to throw me into the deep end and I'll either learn to swim...or drown. (well, I think they'd throw out a rope before I sink too deep)
Point being, I'm at these championships purely to learn and experience things, not to actually try and be competitive. Learning how pentathletes prepare for competition and how such events are organized and run has been very eye-opening. First, there are no breaks in training. On the flight from Denver to Palm Springs, my homework was to read the rule book. Upon arriving at the hotel, (literally that very moment) I was told to go run. Whenever my coaches, Elaine or Januzs, say "go run" it means "don't come back for an hour and no jogging allowed." I took the opportunity to get oriented and check out the sites. Palm Springs is hot and running at 2:00 pm was more of a challenge than I expected.
I met up with my coaches afterward and we went over some more rules. Come evening, some other athletes were fencing in the... HOTEL LOBBY. So I did the completely natural thing and suited up and fenced. People were walking around looking at us funny, but the open spaces actually made for quite a nice fencing location.
Tomorrow I'll sit through some referee training to help familiarize myself with the rules. Then its back to running, swimming, fencing, and shooting. There's no rest for the weary in pentathlon! My competition is officially on Saturday - I'll be sure to give you a play-by-play when the dust settles...
Good night!
Current 200m swim time: 3:07
Current mile run time: 7:00
Current aches and pains: feet
You'd be amazed at how many people learn to swim while trying not to drown... Good luck!
ReplyDelete