How the memories came flooding back in. There we were, at a\nmiddle school track meet. The first for my daughter since joining her school\u2019s\nteam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019ve never participated in a track meet then you\u2019ve\nmissed out on one of life\u2019s unforgettable experiences. It is also the closest\nthing to war that most of us will ever see. There are super sharp javelins\nflying in every direction. There is constant gunfire from starter pistols.\nPeople are always running for their lives or rolling around on the ground in\nagony \u2026 sometimes with javelins sticking out of their ribs. And coaches sound\nlike brave generals giving poetic and inspirational talks that basically\nrevolve around: \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna\u2019 die, then today is a great day to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WHAT?!? Die?!? I\u2019m running one time around the track, coach!\nWhat the heck are you talking about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I went to a pretty small high school in Tampa and we had a\npretty small track team. This meant you couldn\u2019t just specialize in the races\nthat fit you the best. Teams had to enter a specific number of events, so we\nwere constantly being thrown into strange sports we never knew existed before\ngetting off the bus. (Why did we get off the bus?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBrian,\u201d I would hear. \u201cWhy don\u2019t we send you to do the \u2026\nSHOT PUT! Yeah, that sounds good.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShot put!?!\u201d I would reply, making a sound like I was\ngasping and spitting at the same time. \u201cHave you seen me?!? The shot weighs\nmore than I do. I\u2019ll probably snap in half. You\u2019d be better off entering a pine\nneedle than me!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNope! You\u2019ll do great. And it starts in 10 seconds, so head\nout.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Head out? Head out where? Where do they even do the \u2026 oh \u2026 oh\ncrap, I see it. Over there. Where all the guys who look like sumo wrestlers are\nstanding around. They clapped chalk onto their hands. They launched huge metal\nballs into the air like cannons. They grunted and groaned and roared wildly to make\nthe shot roll a little further \u2026 or to scare off dragons hiding in the distant\ntree line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was intimidating to walk over in my short-shorts and arms\nthat had such tiny muscles that they were often mistaken for goosebumps. \u201cSo \u2026\nuh \u2026 is tossing it underhand actually against the rules or just kind of frowned\nupon?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRunners!\u201d someone would grumble beneath their breath. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are sports that you can try and really surprise\nyourself at. You might enter the high jump and realize you have a natural\npropensity to leap and contort your body over the bar. Shot put? Well, shot put\nis not one of those sports. In fact, the best you can hope for is launching it\nwith enough force so that it doesn\u2019t land on your toes. Or that you don\u2019t trip\nand stumble out of the circle \u2026 where the shot lands on your toes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or better yet, that an errant javelin comes out of nowhere\nand stabs you in the ribs \u2026 before the shot lands on your toes. As an added\nbonus, this will get you out of what your coach signed you up for next: pole\nvaulting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
How the memories came flooding back in. There we were, at a middle school track meet. The first for my daughter since joining her school\u2019s team. <\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve never participated in a track meet then you\u2019ve missed out on one of life\u2019s unforgettable experiences. It is also the closest thing to war that most of us will ever see. There are super sharp javelins flying in every direction. There is constant gunfire from starter pistols. People are always running for their lives or rolling around on the ground in agony \u2026 sometimes with javelins sticking out of their ribs. And coaches sound like brave generals giving poetic and inspirational talks that basically revolve around: \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna\u2019 die, then today is a great day to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
WHAT?!? Die?!? I\u2019m running one time around the track, coach! What the heck are you talking about? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[575,562,8,570],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2019-nutshells","category-childhood","category-parenthoodandchildren","category-running"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1919,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/1919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}