A Journey of Close Calls

As I near the end of my track career, at least competing for school, I have realized that I have an insanely outrageous knack for almost achieving. Take the last few competitions I attended this indoor season as a perfect example of what I am referring to. Two of our last three meets were championship meets, we had our conference meet in Maryland and then two weekends later the collegiate New England Championship meet at the wonderful indoor track facility that belongs to Boston University.  At our conference meet the top eight times from the hurdle preliminaries qualify for the final on the second day of competition. I made the finals last year, as a junior, and finished 6th overall. This year I ran faster and came in 9th, the first person not to make the final. Not only was I the cutoff line, but the person who qualified 8th ran .01 seconds faster than me... I also came in second in my preliminary heat, so it wasn't like I sucked ass or anything. Only a really tall black man that ended up finishing third beat me in the preliminary heat.

So that was heartbreaking to some extent, but I wasn't angry when I realized what happened because for me, it was a good race. I was more or less just unlucky. Two weekends later I was very happy to have qualified for the semifinals for the first time at the New England Indoor Championships. The top sixteen from the preliminary make it to the semis. I qualified in the 12th spot, so I knew that I had some work to do, but hey, I made it! I was all geared up for the race on Saturday, hoping that  I could pull off something great and qualify for the final. BU has nine lanes on the infield, which is where the hurdles and dash are contested. So they let nine people run in the finals of the hurdles and dash, which is nice, but the person that comes in 9th is the only one not to score any points, sad face. Anyway, I was ready to go, the adrenaline was flowing and I was feeling that nervousness that I really enjoy, the anticipation for a race! There's nothing like it! I got out of the blocks very well, for me at least, and reactions take over from there.

We were told that the top four from each heat plus the next fastest time would advance to the final. I was in the second heat, knowing that I couldn't come in anything less than 5th in my heat or else I would not make the final. The race went by in an instant, like it always does. 60 meters doesn't last a long time. After crossing the finish line I thought I ran a decent race, I just felt like I floated over the third hurdle which bit my asshole a little.

BU's great indoor track!

I stood on the infield, looking up at the big board, awaiting the results. The results flashed onto the screen, and I saw it. I came in 6th. I did it again, top nine make finals, I came in tenth, like an average employee, because bosses qualify for the finals. Again, I couldn't be too disappointed because I ran only .03 off my best time, but come on, again! I should be used to this now, though, this started way back in high school when I first began running track. By the end of freshman year in high school I was posting the best times on the team in the hurdles. However, I missed the finals at the indoor district meet by .03 seconds, and the next year at the same meet, I was bumped big time in the final, which really messed me up. I didn't run outdoor track until sophomore year because I played baseball my freshman year. Actually, that brings up another memory, I was hit in the face with a baseball bat during tryouts! I'll have to document that tale in another post.

Top 4 make the final

My first year of outdoor track was more of the same. At our league meet I came in second in the 110 meter high hurdles and the 300 meter intermediate hurdles to the same guy. I was almost a double winner at leagues, but not quite. It was still a very pleasant surprise though! Speaking of hurdling, the reason I started to hurdle is kind of interesting. At some point during middle school I realized that I could jump over the furniture in my house rather easily. Also, I distinctly remember one day jumping on top of my friend's stone wall back in eighth grade, to which his mom told me "the track team will be looking for you." That's interesting to think about in hindsight, I guess she was right. Anyway, I decided to run track freshman year and my dad, based on my furniture jumping delight, told me I should try doing the hurdles. I never thought that would be a decision that would impact my life for the next eight years.

My career of almosts continued for the rest of the outdoor season when I came in second at the state qualifier meet in the 110 meter hurdles, qualifying me for the all-state competition where I would place 10th, two spots out of making the finals as a sophomore. I wasn't really expecting to even place that high, so that was a pleasant surprise as well. Come junior year, I had much higher expectations given these very good previous experiences. Junior year was rife with almosts. I remember indoor districts very distinctly. I was in first place after the preliminary and semi-finals for the hurdles. I ended up coming in second in the final which I found very disappointing. Very soon after that I posted my best time ever to qualify for all-states for the first time in indoor track. At the all-state meet I wrote another chapter in my growing list of almosts. I was again the first person to miss the final coming in ninth place when top nine make the finals, this time by 0.02 seconds. I ran a 7.925 and the guy who qualified in front of me clocked in at 7.923. Not to mention that I slightly stumbled out of the blocks. I remember the sense of panic after that rough start. You can have a look at the race yourself in the video below!


I capped off the junior year campaign outdoors placing second at districts and leagues in the 110 meter high hurdles. I lost at leagues by .01 seconds in what was a fantastic race, my favorite one for a while until the many better races I had my senior year, which was absolutely as much fun as anything could possibly be. At the same league meet my coach did not enter me in the 300 meter intermediate hurdles. I was extremely pissed when I found this out. The person who won that event at leagues I had beat earlier in the season at a regular season meet. I still do not understand that decision to this day. But that doesn't take anything away from how great the high hurdle race was. Over the season I had developed a very friendly rivalry with the guy who ended up winning that thrilling race. I would have loved to take that victory over him and I ALMOST did. See the trend here. So junior year marked a year that I would finish second to the same guy in the 110 hurdles at leagues, districts, and state qualifiers. I did think it was quite satisfying that two of the best hurdlers in the area came from our league and that I was a part of it.

That same year I ran a very mediocre race at all-states and missed the final by .06 seconds. I remember seeing that and thinking to myself that I should have definitely made it. I felt like I always choked at the all-state meets since my first experience competing at those meets sophomore year. The failure to qualify for the final at all-states marked the end of track for junior year by the very slightest of margins. My senior year doesn't really fit into this post at all, and I am very happy about that! Senior year of track, as I mentioned before, was soooo much fun. I'll have to document that legendary year (to me) in another post because I think it deserves it. However, I did still have some almosts, but not to the same extent as the ones I have been mentioning.

Fast forward to college track. At the beginning of this post I mentioned the close encounters I had at our conference championship and the New England meet. At outdoor conferences the year before, junior year I fell in the 110 hurdles, which I came out of unscathed. Actually, I wouldn't really say that I fell. Unfortunately I was starting to get sick right before we left for the meet. I did not sleep very well the nights leading up to the meet. Saturday morning, the first day of conferences, I remember not feeling quite right physically. I didn't feel quite as strong. I actually got a decently good start in the high hurdles, but I couldn't get over and back down to the ground the way I usually do. That caught up to me very fast and I clipped one of the first few hurdles and it threw me off a bit. I kept on running and clipped another hurdle just as badly. My opponents had made up the ground from my good start and had already passed me at this point, and by the time I got to the next hurdle I knew I was either wrecking myself on it or going under. I chose the latter and slid onto my back underneath the hurdle. I sacrificed the race for my personal safety. After seeing the results, I could have made it to the finals comfortably if I had put together a typical race for me at that time.

I wanted to prevent this from happening

I ran the 400 meter intermediate hurdles later that day. I still didn't feel great, but I was feeling better as the day went on. I ended up running my best time in the event ever and missing the final by 0.61 seconds. The guy who claimed the last spot into the final was in my heat, too. So I was close again, but the funny thing is that I got demolished in my heat. I only beat one guy, while four others finished in front of me. Those four guys all ended up in the final. I was very happy with the time I ran, though. The 400 hurdles have always given me trouble since freshman year of college when I first started running them. Actually, I've always felt like a disappointment in the intermediate hurdles. My coaches always think that I should be nasty at them and then it doesn't happen. I remember in high school my coach thought I could be the state champion in the 300 meter hurdles, we still ran the 300 hurdles when I was in high school. I never ran the 300 hurdles at any major competitions, leagues was the biggest meet I ever competed in them at. However, I blame the MIAA (the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, I think) for this because they don't let people compete in more than one individual running event at the larger meets. This meant that I always had to choose which hurdle event I wanted to run. I always chose the high hurdles because for some reason I really enjoy that race. So I never really had a chance to run the intermediate hurdles at a very big meet in high school, and I'm going to stick to blaming the MIAA for that.

In college I got the same thing. I remember freshman year when I told my coach I was a hurdler, he thought I meant exclusively an intermediate hurdler. I always get that because of my height, four feet and eleven inches. Not really though, I'm five feet nine and some odd inches tall, which is rather short for a high hurdler, so I don't blame them. However, I still haven't really panned out as an intermediate hurdler and the race continues to frustrate me to no end. Thus the only close call I've had in the intermediate hurdles was at conferences junior year when I missed the final by 0.61 seconds. Otherwise I've always been shit on in that event. I'll end this discussion about my close encounters with almost achieving cool things with a race from this past indoor season of my senior year. My opponent and I posted the same time on the big board. I was second though, so he must have beaten me by thousandths of a second! He was the state champion in the 110 hurdles our junior year of high school, so I'll take it!

He'll see the big board!

Understand where I'm coming from here, I really enjoy track. Track has been a big part of my life for past eight years and I'm so glad that I got involved in the sport. I've met so many great people through track and I have had an absolutely wonderful time competing and embarking on the never ending quest to beat my best times. I just happened to noticed my knack for almost achieving a bunch of accolades. Trust me, it's all in good taste, thank you track for the memories.