Check this video out:
Unleashed Teaser from Sector Y on Vimeo.
I hope Santa brings me a YoYoJam: Dark Magic II Yo-Yo
Wow. One of the highlights of my time in Alabama was getting to meet Chris Solinsky. He is the US 10,000m record holder and came to speak at opening ceremonies. I learned at his speech that he did not start off as a very good runner. In his first race, he came in last place. Then he made a decision to never come in last again. He worked really really hard and became an amazing runner.
On May 2, 2010, Solinsky competed in the 10,000m for the first time at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford University. Not only did he win the race in an amazing 26 minutes, 59.60 seconds, but he also shattered by more than 14 seconds the previous American record for that distance of 27:13.98 set by Meb Keflezighi on the same track on May 4, 2001.
His performance was the second-fastest in the world in 2010, and he became the first non-African to break the 27-minute barrier! He is a five-time NCAA champion and a gold medalist at the the Pan American Games. He was also the 2002 Foot Locker Cross Country champion while attending high school in Wisconsin. He won that race by 20 seconds, tying the largest margin of victory in race history.
He was also the Wisconsin HS state champion in the 3200 as a sophomore, junior and senior, breaking the state record as a junior in 8:58.39.
THIS IS AN INDIVIDUAL I AM WATCHING 🙂
It was such a pleasure to meet him. He was so very nice and encouraging. His talk was amazing and he even started the Bantam Boys (my division) race the next morning.
This is an amazing video of his very first 10,000m race where he sets the American record:
Yesss!! I finished my race in 5th place!!!! I was so proud of myself when I finished. When I saw my mom, she hugged me so tight. She was very amazed.
At the start, there were 250 boys lined up all the way across this huge field. I was on the far left with the rest of my teammates. I had a strong start, but there were a lot of boys that were ahead of me when the course narrowed. I just kept my pace strong and cleared my mind.
My coach told us that since this is the last race of the season, that we should be completely exhausted by the end. We should have nothing left. So I ran at my maximum. When I finished I was so tired. I was so tired that I was crying.
My team took 2nd place. We were all very excited. Here are our results.
After the race, my mom and I went straight to Toys R Us and I got to pick out a new yo-yo! This was very exciting because my mom NEVER takes me to Toys R Us.
We went to a special victory dinner with my team and then after that we went to the USATF Awards Ceremonies. I got 2 awards – one for my individual results and the other for my team results. I had such a fun time this weekend and am so happy!
I am h
ere in Alabama and it is the day before my big race. I met a new friend at the airport on the way here. His name is Jack and we ended up sitting together on the plane. He is on the same team as me. I am still meeting a lot of my teammates because I started so late. We had a lot of fun. He brought his DS and we battled each other in Mario Kart, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, and New Super Mario Bros.
This morning I went to the course at Veterans Park and jogged through it to get the feel of it
. The start is really wide and then it narrows into a path that goes around a lake. You have to go around the lake twice before you then loop around another section to the finish. After the jog-through, my team practiced several starts.
After our morning at the course, my mom and I went to the Wynfrey Hotel and we bought some sweatshirts for souvenirs. I got a really cool bright yellow sweatshirt 🙂
I have been thinking a lot about tomorrow and I am a little bit nervous. My mom tells me I shouldn’t be, but I am. I bet all the runners are feeling the same way. My mom says to just do my best! And I will.
We ended up going to lunch with Jack’s family. Then we headed over to the Opening Ceremonies at Samford University. It was really fun. They had a big band playing music as we paraded into the stadium. There were 16 regions from across the country. I am from Region 15. Each region had these “Hoover Belles” leading the way. They were girls who were wearing really big dresses and hats. 
At the ceremony, the director of the competition spoke. Also, a man named Chris Solinsky spoke. He is an amazing athlete and runner. He gave a speech encouraging all of us to do our best. Afterwards, at the big Pasta Dinner, I got to meet him and get his autograph. It was so cool. I will have to write more about him later.
That’s all for now. I’ll keep you updated.
This weekend I am going to Alabama because I qualified for the USATF National Junior Olympics Cross Country competition. I am very excited and proud of myself.
My goal is to try to come in the top 25 runners. I learned that if you place in the top 25, you achieve All-American honors. I don’t really exactly know what that means, but my mom told me that she was 20 years old when she earned it in tennis. Since I’m 8, I think it would be cool to get it now 🙂
I also hope to complete the race in under 11 minutes. These are very hard goals but I once heard that if you reach for the moon and you fall short, you will land in the stars. I like that. So I want to aim really really high.
I also like the idea of winning a medal, too.
That’s the motto of the Oceanside Turkey Trot and also for my family. First thing in the morning, my mom and dad went for a 5-mile run together before taking my sister and me to the races. This year was my 2nd time racing in the kids’ 1-mile race. I love the 1 mile races because they are short and sweet.
This race was also exciting because my little sister, Mia, decided she wanted to participate, too. She ran in a 1/4-mile race.
It was a beautiful day. I always get a few butterflies in my stomach right before a race when I’m at the starting line. But as soon as the gun or horn sounds and I’m running, they all disappear.
My race was first and it was pretty quick. There was a motorcycle leading the way, followed by a high school pacer. This is someone who leads the group and also shows which way to go. Right after the horn sounded, I got a good start. I ended up running alongside the pacer.
She was talking to me saying things like, “good job, buddy!” Eventually, I passed her and was on my own.
I won the race with a time of 5:46. It was my personal goal to try to break the 6-minute mark and I was shocked as I was approaching the finish line and saw the big timer read 5:something. I couldn’t believe it! It was such an amazing feeling.
I heard my mom screaming, “Go, Max!!!” It was great.
After all the runners went through, Mia’s race started. I had so much fun waiting for her at the finish line and cheering her on. She seemed to enjoy it. She took 5th place and said she met a friend along the way. I guess they were smiling at each other the entire race.
What a fun Thanksgiving morning. My parents were happy and they gave us a fun surprise. Right after the races, we drove straight to Six Flags Magic Mountain! We met some friends in Valencia and had a really nice dinner at the Hyatt. Then we stayed through the weekend and rode the most crazy roller coasters ever!
I’m grateful for my family. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving 🙂
Yesterday I went to the USATF Regional Championships at Mt. SAC in Walnut, CA. My family and I got up really early to drive up north. It was pouring rain and I thought I would be running in the rain. Luckily, the rain cleared by the time we got there.
The first thing we did was do a course walk-through. This is when you walk the entire race course to get a feel for it and know which way to go. Every course is different.
Since this was the Regional Championship, there were many more runners from Southern California. In my division, there were over 50 boys.
When we were doing the course walk-through, I noticed that a lot of the other runners had t-shirts and sweatshirts that said National Junior Olympics 2009. I thought they must be really good runners because they went to Nationals last year. I also decided that I wanted a sweatshirt of my own.
I was very excited about the race. The good news is I am completely over my bronchitis and cough! I felt so strong and could breathe without making wheezing noises.
At the start, I quickly fell behind. I noticed that the runner who took first place at last week’s Association race was at the very front of the pack. I was probably somewhere in the second half.
The course had a lot of turns in it and pretty early on, I passed that runner! It was definitely a boost for me, even though he wasn’t in first anymore. I passed a lot of runners and just kept trying to catch more, one at a time. My lung
s and legs felt great.
As I neared the finish, I saw the clock. It showed a time that was waaaay less than the time from last week. I was so excited as I ran through to the end. I placed 4th behind 2 runners from 2 other teams and 1 from my team.
This meant I not only qualified for Nationals as a team, but also as an individual! Everyone was really excited. I am SO PSYCHED that I am going to Nationals next month!!
Official results are posted here.
Yesterday was my first cross country race with the Socal Roadrunners, my new team. My division is called Bantam, which is for runners who are 10 and under. I am supposed to be a Sub-Bantam, but the National Junior Olympics’ youngest division is Bantam, so I was bumped up.
The race distance for Bantams is 3k. Our race was held at Kit Carson Park in Escondido, CA. Here is a picture from the start:
It was another really cold morning. I was still coughing a lot, but I felt I had a good race. At practices, Coach pointed out to me several of the team’s top Bantam runners. I tried to make sure I kept up with them at practice and wanted to see how I’d do next to them at this race.
I ended up taking 4th place and was very happy with my results. My coach told me that my performance was good enough to make it to the next qualifier, which is the USATF Regional Championships. That race is next week. I’m excited.
My cough got pretty bad this week and my mom thinks I have bronchitis. I’m still taking antibiotics and hope to be better ASAP!!
I know this is not as exciting to a lot of kids who score goals easily at every game, but for me soccer has been a really big challenge.
Forget making goals.. I’ve spent all season working on overcoming my fear of getting kicked, hit with the ball in the face, or whatever. It seems like my teammates don’t have that fear. They just get in there and go crazy. They do it so well, too. I have never been really aggressive like that even though I still love playing.
All season long, I’ve been working on trying to be more aggressive. Today was a really fun game. Into the second half, we were tied 0-0 still. No one was able to score. Everyone was getting frustrated because we had a lot of chances.
During an exchange, I had the ball and a great opportunity near the goal. I think I was so excited that I completely missed the ball and kicked the air. Then one of the opposing players got the ball and I chased him down. I got the ball back and set up again. That time I kicked the ball good and scored my very first goal!
It felt so amazing. I was really proud of myself 🙂 The team was so happy- we scored a second goal within minutes after that and ended up winning 2-0.
Some things are easier for some people than for others. This was a big deal for me.
Here is a picture of my goal shot!!
After my 5k race last week, I decided to give cross country another shot. Over the summer I tried a few practice sessions with the San Diego Socal Roadrunners which is a local running club. It was fun but since I was also doing soccer at the time, I decided not to do it.
But now that soccer is coming to an end, I thought about it again and met with the coach to possibly join the team. I didn’t realize, however, that the cross country season is practically over. The coach said that the only races left were two qualifiers for the USATF National Junior Olympics. He was nice and invited me to come to practice anyway.
My first practice was on Tuesday, the same day as the NBC News taping at my school. It was a long day since I was up at 5am, ran 7 miles at school, and then had his practice at 5pm.
The practice was kind of hard for me. I had never done any sort of special warm-up or stretching before running and the team all seemed to know what they were doing. Also, the practice was a series of six 600 meter runs at race pace with very little rest in between. The coach told me to run with certain kids and I did my best. My cough was getting worse but I didn’t want to complain. After the workout, the coach asked me to come back and try to compete in the first national qualifier which is this weekend, on Sunday. I said “okay.”
So far, I don’t know anyone on the team. They have all been together since June and they all know each other. I’m sort of a stranger to them and nobody really talks to me, but it’s okay.
I’ve started taking antibiotics and doubling up on my green smoothies every day to get rid of my cough. I am looking forward to the race and hope to do well.