March 10, 2016

Hey Badger Fans!

The biggest week of the indoor season is here! Big Tens are a huge competition, but nationals are a whole other level. I am joined by three of my teammates, as I mentioned last week, Georgia, Zach, and Morgan. We are coming off of a down weekend and so we did not have any competitions.  It was nice to have a weekend to sort of relax and focus on training before the big competition.

Traveling with all of our implements and equipment can be a rather trying experience. For our throwing implements we transport them in several rolling pelican cases. Our math skills are put to the test whenever we get to the check in desk because we have to add up all the weights of the implements to make sure it is under fifty pounds. I do not think we have ever had a trip where the cases haven not been opened up by security. I have to wonder if the airline workers know what these implements they are inspecting actually are for. We only had to bring shot puts for this trip to nationals because for the weight throw, everyone has to throw one of the provided implements. It is the only throwing event at nationals where you cannot bring your own. I brought four for myself, for practice and competition and Georgia and Zach each put one in for their competitions. The javelins are transported in a more pliable case and can be sort of frustrating to maneuver through an airport, especially up and down an escalator. However, I will concede that the absolute toughest pieces of equipment to travel with are pole vault poles. They are gigantic and can get rather heavy when we travel with a lot of them. We also get plenty of stares in the airports when we travel with all of our equipment.

We are all settled into our hotel here in Birmingham, AL. Luckily it is by a lot of restaurants so we won’t have to go far for a wide variety of food choices. For our first meal here we decided what better way to go than BBQ. It was pretty delicious, and had heaping portions. On the agenda for tomorrow is a practice session and then tomorrow evening is the awards banquet. I love the banquet because it is so much fun to see all of the athletes out of their uniforms and dressed up for the occasion. I must say, I think we clean up pretty good! It is then off to the races on Friday with the first day of competition firing up. I cannot believe that this is my last indoor competition in badger uniform, but I have loved every second of this crazy ride!

Have a great week Badger Fans,

Kelsey