Tucson Elite, Relay of Champions and Back to Europe:

This blog comes to you live from about 28,000 feet somewhere over western Arizona. I'm on the way back to heaven, oops I mean San Diego, after competing in the Tucson Elite Throwers Meeting yesterday. I finished 2nd with just under 76m and in my opinion had a way below average meet. Coming off the 78m show in Doha, which was my best opening meet of my career, I was expecting something just under 80m. But after watching the throws on video, I am not worried, upset, or flustered in any way, in fact, I’m rather pleased. Why you ask…well, since you asked… I have absolutely no vertical lift on my throw at the moment and the throws are going a decent distance just on good old-fashioned horsepower. If I can maintain my current fitness level and fix the technical problems (which is always the battle) then I should see some throws well over 80m in the near future.
Community news…last week was the busiest week of community activity that I have had since last fall. Last Saturday was the Rady Children’s Hospital, Relay for Life. This annual event celebrates the local kids that have overcome cancer or any other life threatening illnesses and also remembers the ones who have passed on. This was the 2nd time I have been to this event and it is a great reminder of how lucky we are (I’m assuming your feeling groovy at the moment ;) to have our health. The next time I’m having a bad day all I have to do is reflect on my time with these kids who are just happy to wake up in the morning because they never know when their time is up. I would upload some pictures from the event but an autistic kid named Mike decided he would give my camera a little bit of a beating and I couldn’t get it to work for a few hours, no worries though its all good now ;) Mike was a good sport and it was all in good fun. The only bummer of the day was when I got paired up with some of the local San Diego Padres (that’s baseball for some of the Euro-blog readers)…As usual these guys are too cool for school and where only there because they had to be. I got rubbed the wrong way a few times though…let me paint the picture for you. I got approached by several kids and parents holding programs, flyers and pictures and sharpie markers, here is how the conversation goes.

Kid - “Hello, can I have your autograph!”
Me – “Of course, what’s your name, blah blah blah”
Kid – (states his name…with Mom & Dad hovering behind him) “What position do you play?”
Me – “Oh I don’t play for the Padres, I’m a javelin thrower and 2008 Olympian”
Kid – “Oh, sigh ummmmm, where did the Padre’s go?” (As Mom & Dad scurry the kid away like I had the swine flu or something)

Now take this conversation and repeat it about 20 times…so it was a little bit of a buzz kill, only until my man Mike comes running up and tries to throw my sunglasses in the San Diego Bay…then I could care less ;)
The rest of the week was filled with 3 classes of 2nd grade students from Eastlake Elementary. These were great kids as usual and are still at the stage where they think that being an Olympian is kinda cool, or maybe it was the Beijing highlight video we watched together that helped out? Either way, it was a great week that culminated with a 2 ay trip to Tucson. Next Thursday I am headed back over to Europe for a 2-week circuit. My 1st stop is Hengelo, Netherlands, or Holland, or whatever you want to call it. It is a IAAF Grand Prix 1 and I am hoping to solve this mysterious vertical lift component on my throw. From there the tentative plan is Kuortane, Finland on June 6, Thessaloniki, Greece on June 10 and I am currently on the wait-list for the Berlin Golden League on June 14th. I hope the next blog comes from somewhere in Europe with a beer and new personal best!
M++