ON THE WAY HOME....

So last week Wednesday, my manager sent me an email asking me to do him a favour and make a quick transatlantic trip to Scotland to compete in a match meet between Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, the USA and a Commonwealth Select team made up of athletes from the varying Commonwealth countries.

I had already told him previously that I had NO intentions on competing indoors and instead would take my time and get ready for an early start to my outdoor season in March. However, Robert, my manager, and I are very good friends and since he hardly ever asks for favours and since he's done so much for me over the years, I agreed in spite of my lack of competition readiness and against my better judgment. D.O. warned me,"Don't go if you're not ready!"

Of course, I came. And of course, I wasn't ready. Up until last week I had only jumped from a 7 stride approach in practice and my full run up is 17 strides long. For those of you who don't know, that's a HUGE difference as far as speed, timing and accuracy are concerned.

Anyway, without getting into great detail, it didn't go so well. Although I finished third and the Commonwealth Select team won overall, three fouls, one jump way behind the board and two oh-so-mediocre jumps later,I only won $1000 and the distance I jumped was far less than stellar. In spite of the fact that my training has been going very well, I was not ready to compete and as they say in track in field, if you show up on the start line, there are no excuses. You are implicitly stating that you're ready, so my bad on this one. It will not happen again.

I could have joined Dave, Joel, Aub and Brooks in Malmo, Sweden for another meet but I passed. I have work to do. My flight leaves Glasgow in the morning at 9am and I get back to LA just in time to watch the Superbowl. Go Steelers!!!