And the award goes to...

What a great way to end the season!!

From Athletics

At no point was I expecting to receive anything at the St Mary's Richmond Athletic prize giving today as I only managed to grab 2nd spot (or 3rd depending on Neil Jennings' performance at the decathlon this weekend) on the club's overall men's top performance list (Just missing out to Paul Derrien and his string of wins in hammer and discus) plus I missed out on the highest scoring individual performance (Awarded to Mervyn Glover for his excellent 1.92m High Jump), and when my name was called out you can imagine the surprise..

The trophy was for "Most Improved Male Athlete 2008", as it is my first season at the club (and back at athletics after a long break). I also picked up a medal for being part of the team who became the "Rosenheim League Western Division Winners 2008".

It was also an honour to be a part of two other teams who did very well this year, firstly the Southern Men's League (Division 3S) who were undefeated and have now been promoted to Division 2, and secondly to the small 8-man team who triumphed at the Ealing Borough Trophies competition and won the Men's Faringdon Trophy against all odds (certainly one of the most memorable events I've had to date picking up 4 personal bests in what felt like an intense never-ending cold shower from beginning to end the way the rain came pouring down.)

That puts 2008 to rest and I've not managed to improve on any of my events since I last posted them up here, but here they are for the final time to round off the season and I've included markers for what I want to aim for during next season in brackets:

400m - 59.9s (56s)
High Jump - 1.80m (1.85m)
Long Jump - 6.18m (6.30m)
Triple Jump - 12.11m (12.20m)
Pole Vault - 3.00m (3.50m)
Shot Put - 9.01m (9.20m)
Hammer Throw - 17.94m (20.00m)
Javelin Throw - 49.70m, 163rd in the UK (50.00m)

Let the winter training begin....

You've got to be fit, to be in it!

There is no doubt in my mind when King Gustav V from Sweden told Jim Thorpe: "You sir, are the World's Greatest Athlete" after he won the 1912 Stockholm Olympics Decathlon, that Jim Thorpe had started out his Decathlon journey (plus all the other individual track & field events he took part in those Olympics) in one of the healthiest and fittest forms of his life.

It's with great sadness then that I have decided not to take part in the Decathlon event this weekend, due to an ankle injury I picked up earlier the week.

The injury happened while performing a routine parkour performance in London, and although the ankle was not severely damaged or very serious, thanks to a number of factors including a very good warm-up beforehand, it was enough to cause swelling and light bruising. With these sorts of injuries I've learned that the infamous R.I.C.E. (Rest Ice Compression Elevation) plays an important role in recovery, and I managed to get all this started within minutes of the injury thanks to a handy wine cooler and a bucket of ice nearby.

The on-site nurse completed a quick check up, and I was able to get home to relax without the need for Zimmer frames, wheelchairs or the use of the local paramedic helicopter. :-)

Even though it's been 5 days since the injury and the original swelling has gone down a lot with only a small patch of bruising visible, I still do not feel I should be battering my body through the hard knocks of a 2 day decathlon course. It's very sad, but I'll be sure to reap the long-term benefits from this decision instead.

I have a number of other very interesting events coming up at the end of this month and next, such as running parkour workshops at the White Air Extreme Sports Festival on the Isle of Wight and taking contestants through the official parkour checkpoint for The London Rat Race. From the way the recovery is going so far I should be fighting fit and ready to go by then.

The Decathlon, I'm sad to say, will have to wait......... for now. ;-)

2008 Athletics season winding down

It's been an interesting year to say the least. This time last year I had no idea I would be picking up athletics again after a 15 year break. (15 years! How quick does time fly?). The main reason for getting back into athletics was merely for cross training to aid my parkour in long and high jumps, although I thought I would try out whatever I could seeing as I was at the track.

However, after only a few training sessions over at St Mary's Richmond AC I was already gearing up to take part in the first minor competition, The Rosenheim League (our club eventually finished 7th overall this year).

Shortly after that I started competing in the more formal Southern Men's League - Division 3s, where we finished first and were promoted to the 2nd division for 2009, Yay!.

All-in-all, it's been loads of fun and a great way to keep busy and fit outdoors and certainly improved on my vertical and horizontal jumps in parkour.

Next step is taking part in the Surrey Decathlon where I have to complete 10 events in 2 days (For more information about Decathlons then just click THIS LINK). I'm quietly confident, but at the same time nervous as it is my first time doing this and there are a few events I've never competed in before (and the final event is a gruelling 1500m!!).

Just to round up my athletic achievements so far for 2008:
High Jump 1.80m
Long Jump 6.18m
Triple Jump 12.11m
Pole Vault 3.00m
Shot Put 9.01m (7.26kg)
Javelin Throw 49.70m (800g)

I'll be looking to improve on one or two at the Decathlon before the 2008 season officially closes and I will write a brief post on that experience later.

Athletics Results so far (New Personal Bests)

Results from Southern Men's League on 3rd May at London Heathside AC:
"
Javelin Throw A
1 Dane Grant - SMR - 43.81
2 Nathan Cynes - LHS - 37.81
3 Ian Frankish - E&E - 37.04
4 Graham Taylor - EGR - 21.09

Javelin Throw B
1 Paul Derrien - SMR - 35.16
2 Daniel Aka - LHS - 29.72
3 Adam Bosher U20 - E&E - 26.24
4 Ben Ivorson - EGR - 19.78

Long Jump A
1 Dane Grant - SMR - 6.00
2 Emmanuel Stasaitis - LHS -5.94
3 Daniel Medcalf - EGR - 5.81
4 John Andrews - E&E - 4.72

Long Jump B
1 Tim Medcalf - EGR - 5.61
2 Daniel Aka - LHS - 5.55
3 Mervyn Glover - SMR - 5.52
4 Adam Bosher U20 - E&E - 4.47
"

Results from the Rosenheim League on 21st May at Walton AC:
"
Javelin Men
1. D Grant - SMR - n/s - 47.81
2. N Jennings - SMR - 45.16
3. G Bridgeman - SMR - n/s - 42.22
4. I Frankish - E&E - n/s - 37.97
5. A Richardson - SMR - n/s - 33.97
6. J Ladley - WAL - 31.52
7. J Thomas - E&E - 28.44
8. P Goldsmith - BA - 23.30
"

I was a non-scorer this event (due to a concern over an ankle injury I picked up at the last Southern Men's League meeting), but all distances are officially recorded and the next goal is to hit the 50m mark.

Athletics + Beijing + Camping = Summer '08

Summer has finally hit the UK and everybody has begun to climb out of their various hibernation holes and gearing up to head outside for their exercise of choice.

I've been keeping myself busy as well and thought it time to do a quick write up on what I've been up to over the last few months as well as the plans ahead.

Since joining St Mary's Richmond Athletics Club my focus over the last 2 months has been on preparing for this year's Men's Southern League athletics meetings held at various clubs around London. The first event was held at Parliament Hill last Saturday (3rd May 2008) where I took part in the Javelin and Long Jump events. Although I managed to place 1st in both events (Javelin = 43.81m & Long Jump = 6.0m), being the first athletics competition I've done in 13 years, I know I have a lot more to practise and improve on. I did walk (or rather limp) away with a small ankle injury during my javelin run-up which has almost healed up now, but enough to frustrate me... Grrr

The next athletics event is tonight (7th May) in Kingsmeadow for the Rosenheim League where I'll be taking it easy while my ankle heals up and only set to take part in the pole vault event. My aim is to beat the 2.20m I cleared in training last week.

In-between the athletics training I managed to get some time to head out to Beijing, China with Mercedes for a Parkour and Free Running performance at the Auto China 2008 car show with a few old, and some new, friends.

I have been threatening to set up all the pictures on here and just haven'tmade the time for it yet. They'll find their way online at some stage with a brief write-up, hopefully sooner than later. :-)

We also decided to test out the camping gear over the weekend in preparation for the 87km Namibian Fish River Canyon Hike which is coming up later on in the year. More on that event later though.

A busy season ahead...

I've decided not to run Bushy Park Time Trial for 2 weeks and instead spend some time focussing on my other training as well as volunteering on Saturdays.

The first time I volunteered at Bushy Park I played photographer and took pictures of everyone running while last Saturday I registered names of those runners who finished onto the system. Next Saturday they have me up to be the "number checker". (I know, it sounds a bit strange but has to do with keeping synchronisation between the time keeper and the person handing out numbers so we'll see how that goes.)

Wednesday and Sundays at St Mary's Richmond Athletic Club will be my new home for athletics training where I am hoping to improve on my Javelin distance as well as pick up the pace on my shorter distance running. More on that as the season progresses.

I'm still running every Monday and Thursday at Sweatshop Teddington to keep the miles ticking over as well as trying to squeeze in Parkour training wherever possible.

Reading this post through it looks like I am tackling far to much at once, but things are not yet hectic and unmanageable. Once the athletic season kicks in it is bound to be a totally different story though.... :-)