Mentally Tough

Imagine you are on the 4 by 4 team and your teammate steps on your heel and knocks your shoe off. You have 2 choices 1) stop because how can you run with out a track shoe or 2) just run anyway. This actually happened yesterday at the Penn Relays. Monica Hargrove came into the exchange area and gave natasha Hastings a 'flat tire'. It took off her shoe, they were battling for first against Jamaica and the USA "B" team. She ran a 51.0 split which put them in a tie for the lead, which was all Alison Felix and Sanya Richards needed to win. She ended up with a pretty big blister but stayed mentally tough.

I was trying to picture each of our athletes in that situation and I actually imagine that most of you would just run too. Yesterday we were at a horrible meet and had plenty of excuses if things didn't go right. Our last three people to compete, the ones who had been there the longest and had to do the most waiting were Jacob, Lauren and Nikki. Jacob got 3rd in the 200 (.04 off his PR) Lauren got 3rd in the LJ (1 inch off her PR) and Nikki got 3rd in the Discus (4 feet off her best). Good stuff.