Ever tried a field event?

A few years ago an Alaska kid did Triple jump in 42 and 3200 under 9:20 and he is an all American XC skier

I think this post should be deleted. We're runners, not sissy jumpers.

My oldest brother-6 years older than I am- is a big, muscular guy-I idolized him as a little kid. When I was in 7th grade track, I signed up for the shotput, just so I could be like him. It wasn't as a lark-it was my primary event. I bet I weighed 60 lbs. I did it the whole season, occasionally I would beat some other scrawny kid or two, but as often as not, I was dead last. The coach had me run the 880 and the mile because only a couple people wanted to-and he had spots to fill. I did better in that event-essentially untrained- than in the shot where I spent my entire practice time.

5 years later, I was running the two mile in the mid to low tens-not a world beater, but I scored my share of points. And I gave up the shotput in 8th grade.

I got a kick out of trying LJ at a JV meet, hit 16'4" and had a blast - ruined my legs for the 1600 though. so if you go to mess around with field events, I would not advise planning on also doing a serious event.

Triple jump of 45' in high school.

Started out running 800 until the coach kept making me run 400-800-1500 in every meet. Got frustrated and went to the horizontal jumps which I ended up doing in college but was hurt 90% of the time. After college started long distance running, which I've always been better at. Mid 40's triple jump isn't very good and puts you on the c/b team at most colleges.

come to think of it - one of the most fun things I have ever done was a decathlon our track coach had everyone do before track season started.

We actually did the events, except jav, I think. we did 400 ih instead. We had a points display up to track the competitors.

The goal was to see if anyone had any talent away from their comfort zone, and to get our competitive fire going. I really wanted to win.

Anyone else do this? Sounds totally badass and old school - sending everyone up to pole vault? really?

Another aspect of it was to give us respect for the other events. hurdling is really hard, as is the sp. Easier to respect a 200 pound guy who can barely run a mile when you see how far he can throw the shot.

I threw a javelin ~110 feet the first time I ever picked it up in practice. Asked my coach to let me throw it at the league meet and he said no. He already planned to race me in the maximum number of events. I probably would've scored with a 100 foot javelin throw, but there was no way I was gonna score with a 5:00 mile after the 3200. Poor coaching decision, imo.

Yep. I was useless at disc and shot. PV I could clear 9 feet, so useless there too.

HJ pr was 5'6", which scored us some points at dual meets. LJ pr was around 19', which also scored us some points. But these are still mediocre marks.

Best field event was jav, I qualified for the state meet with a 165'. I credit it to having a good arm from playing 10 years of baseball. Though it's actually more of a football throwing motion than a baseball throwing motion.

Great thread! As a former competitive pole vaulter turned recreational distance runner, I'm loving all of the pole vault stories.

Entering races of various distances has given me a different kind of appreciation for what goes into being a good runner. It is also kind of funny to impress the folks at the office with what are decidedly mediocre race times.

Long jump should be easy enough to practice at your local high school track, but high jump pads are generally not as easy to access if you want to get in some trials before competing.

Just as some runners like to do certain workouts together, if you could find a friend to come with you to work on your long jump approach, it might be a little more fun.

I'm not saying that you have to prepare a lot, but having your steps down and knowing approximately where to start your approach before you show up to the meet will make things go a lot smoother for you and make you look more "professional". I'd liken this to the difference between showing up to a road race in a singlet and split shorts vs longer inseam shorts and the shirt from the actual race.

Good luck and have fun! While not a LJ expert, I can probably post some tips for working out an approach if you need.

When I was in high school I occasionally did the high jump. I also tried the triple jump once and that was it. Never again.

I actually set my junior high school's high jump record. It was a white suburban high school, in the pre-flop era, so it was only 5-5. I tried triple jump, never really got it. Tried javelin, couldn't ever even get the thing to stick in the ground.

In the last home meet of my senior season I won the mile 4;32, 400 52.23 & got second in the shot 37 feet. I lifted a lot and was built like a linebacker for a distance runner.