Ever tried a field event?

I've tried javelin.

Wouldn't recommend it to the typical distance runner.

Pole vault, long jump, high jump. Of those was best at long jump, in which I could jump my age through teen years. Was pretty terrible at high jump (maybe 5' or 5'1") and pole vault (~10').

mods

Do these all comers track meets host a marathon?

High jump as a HS freshman.

5'2" best

Made right call to run the 800.

I used to help the coach drag out the pads for PV and HJ before workout started. He let me practice PV a little before warm ups. About mid-season my junior year we had a dual meet where the other HS was really weak in PV. I vaulted for us and vaulted 10'00" in the same meet that I ran 10:00 for the 3200 and scored points in both events.

one of my finest hours ever - a HS invitational my senior year. I remember the jumps coach coming over and talking to the distance coach and looking my way. the two came over to me and asked if I would help the HJ team - they needed a third guy for the team event.

I said sure, having played around on the mat a little. I ran the mile, broke 5 which was a good day for me, then reported to the HJ pit, jumped a lifetime high of 5'2". Won a medal for the team and retired from the HJ.

I still remember the feelign when I cleared 5-2 in front of the hj team - what a rush.

pole vaulted twice senior year of high school at relay meets. these meets required 4 entrants in every event.

i tried it on a tuesday and was signed up for the saturday meet. vaulted again a week later. cleared 11'6" both times. our team won the pv event both times with me as the low man for our team.

We sucked in the field events so the track coach asked the basketball coach which players were the best leapers. He said I was - I was decent miler/2 miler. The day before district I did my first ever practice in the long jump and high jump. I cleared 6'4" with not too much trouble. The long jump I did pretty well too - maybe 22 feet. I would have scored points in both events in the district meet with those performances. The next day at the district meet after the 2-mile I was called to the long jump. I was pretty nervous. On my first attempt I hit the board okay but jumped more vertically than horizontally. It was embarrassing. I took my sweats and did not try again and did not try high jump either.

my senior year of track I f*cked around at dual meets and practices jumping and pole vaulting

my best in the 800 was 1:55 to go with a 49 400, so although I had speed my best long jump was only about 17 feet and my best PV about 9 feet. I couldnt clear starting height in the HJ

In HS, I played around with the TJ for 4 years of outdoor track and 2 years of indoor. I PRed a few times at 5'4" in the HJ, but found it frustrating to never be able to go higher. I think I just had bad form due to a lack of flexibility. I enjoyed the TJ more. I think I started in the 32' range as a freshman.

My best TJ came in our last dual meet my Sr. year. I had run the mile and 2-mile in the running event portion of the meet. I won both and PRed in the mile with a 4:38. Then with the meet hanging in the balance, the TJ was the last event going off and all both teams were gathered around. I was jumping 4th-to-last. On my final jump, I PRed in 39'3". The guy from the other team after me, managed to just beat it for 3rd. The meet ended in a tie for the League Championship. I had a very good day, but it bothered me that I couldn't go a little further to get us the win.

I was a decathlete prior to switching over to the mid-distances back in high school. HJ is hands down the hardest event in the sport. Timing, technique and jumping ability are all critical.

PV looks daunting but if you are strong and fast enough to get some bend on a longer pole, you can clear some heights.

Shot and Disc are all about explosiveness. I could out throw some guys twice my weight in the shot. Most people think they can throw a Jav, until they pick it up can it comes out sideways and sometimes it hits them in the head.

PV-12'

HJ-6'2

LJ-18.x'

Jav-168'

I don't remember my Disc and Shot PR's/weight of implements off the top of my head.

In high school, after the track season a teammate wanted to do a decathlon (trying to qualify for the junior Olympics or something). Coach asked for anyone to do one with him as a practice one weekend. Only the distance guys volunteered.

It was ugly. And hilarious. Hurdles was laughable, javelins stuck in backwards, pole vault was straight dangerous. 1500 was fun though. Good times.

Tried PV once about a million years ago. Scared the crap out of me.

agip wrote:

one of my finest hours ever - a HS invitational my senior year. I remember the jumps coach coming over and talking to the distance coach and looking my way. the two came over to me and asked if I would help the HJ team - they needed a third guy for the team event.

I said sure, having played around on the mat a little. I ran the mile, broke 5 which was a good day for me, then reported to the HJ pit, jumped a lifetime high of 5'2". Won a medal for the team and retired from the HJ.

I still remember the feelign when I cleared 5-2 in front of the hj team - what a rush.

Pretty much exactly the marks I hit my freshman year in the exact same situation, ran 4:54 for the 4xmile frosh relay, then 5'4" in the 3xhj relay. This was a frosh/soph only meet, which was really rewarding, since I wasn't getting destroyed by the older guys for once.

I've always been mid distance/distance guy (1:52, 3:47, 14:49) but I've done a lot of other events, all in HS, coach was pretty cool with letting us try new things.

LJ 21'3

TJ 39'5 (first and only time I tried that)

HJ 6'

Jav 158' (thanks youtube)

Not so Deca anymore wrote:

Most people think they can throw a Jav, until they pick it up [and] it comes out sideways and sometimes it hits them in the head.

This. In gym class, first year of high school, we all tried all the field events. The guy in front of me hit himself in the back of the head with the tail of the javelin, sustaining a severe pride injury. When my turn came I was cautious--to put it mildly--and threw it about 30 (feet, not meters).

When I couldn't run anymore and started coaching a women's team, I had a co-coach for the first couple of years who handled field events. But after that I was on my own (the only coach for the team), and though I'd read about the various field events it seemed like a good idea to actually learn how to do the throws. I really came to enjoy the discus (though at first it was hard to get the women's little disc to fly properly) and ended up throwing it somewhere around 40m. If you throw the discus even half right, it feels pretty good; you have to get the shot about 80-90% right for it not to just feel clunky.

I can't sprint or jump but for some rerason my throws are quite good. At my old school I broke the shotput record by nearly a meter and then got beaten on the next throw, and I held titles at my highschool in the discus and 10000m at the same timewith 121 feet in the discus and 35 mid in the 10km.

CorpulentCruiser wrote:

I've tried javelin.

Wouldn't recommend it to the typical distance runner.

Actually of all the field events javelin is the one a distance runner might succeed at. The javelin is light, and throwing it relies more on technique and core strength.

Carnivore 69 wrote:

High jump as a HS freshman.

5'2" best

Made right call to run the 800.

How tall are you? 5'2" is fine for a high school freshmen, especially if you're short and still have a growth spurt coming.