52 Lives

This week’s main event had changed from Cooper test to heptathlon, which was held on Thursday, Sep 13th. The company I work for (SYSOPENDIGIA) had organised this yearly event and I was excited to participate since I’ve never tried heptathlon before. I intentionally took Monday and Tuesday as rest days, but eventually Wednesday was a rest day too. I needed to go to the parents meeting at my kids day care, so I didn’t go jogging on that evening. Now after the heptathlon I can fortunately say that it was wise to rest on those three days. I mean I’m really exhausted at the moment, I never couldn’t imagine it to be so tough! You just go there, throw a couple of times, jump and then run those short sprints, right??? The morning after the event I woke up with sore thighs and arms, aching back&shoulders and broken ankle, but it was worth it And here’s why…

1. Competiting at a real stadiun

The event was held in the Tampere stadium. These are rare moments for me to walk in the field and enjoy the atmosphere! What I also liked was that there were real athletes training. There were kids training pole vault, sprints, javelin and hurdles with their coaches. So it was a chance for me to absorp some of the tips and exercises just by watching the real pros.

2. Chance to try my limits

My latest experiences of shot put, high jump and javelin were from the late nineties, so it was a good chance to see my current level. I love to compete and try to push my limits, so I gave a full 100% in every event. Of course I don’t have the perfect techniques and body of an athlete, so the results themselves are not “high class” But at this age and life condition it’s more important to just enjoy sports and have laughs with your buddies.

Here are the results I was able to achieve. There’s also some notes for future reference, so that next year I’m able to do better

• 100m hurdles: 19,93 s
  • I was jumping too high, so my speed reduced drastically with every hurdle. Next time I need to keep my body as low as possible.
• Long jump: 4,70 m
  • With more accurate step marks I could have gone over 5 meter. Next time I pay more attention to that.
• Shot put: 12,80 m
  • I should train more of the technique and get more meters by using the legs right.
• 200 meters: 30,0 s
• Javelin: 35,70 m
  • I will try a technique that one guy was using when he was teaching kids to throw. He was running sideways until he reached the full speed. He had the javelin in the throwing position all the way, so it was easy to throw from the full speed.
• High jump: 145 cm
  • I almost got over 150, so that’s my goal next time
• 800 meters: 3:00 min

3. Aftermath and rewards

I don’t think pros go to the sauna and drink beer after their events, but we did It was fun to have good time with my colleagues and drink a few beers. On the way home I was reading a funny book and occasionally bursting in laughter. The perfect end for this enjoyable night was to walk the last mile home and watch the stars on a clear dark sky… Joys in life seem to be simple, at least for us simple ones

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