The Decathlon That Mattered

This was the one I was super confident about. Last time, I talked a bit of trash - 7 personal bests for the weekend. Well... here's what actually went down.

On Thursday, I was notified of the absence of any other competitors in the decathlon. Did I really want to do 10 events all by my lonesome? ... Hell yes!

On Friday, an uneventful 3 hour team bus ride from U of C to Edmonton was followed by a nutritious meal of a burger and fries courtesy of Boston Pizza (it didn't look like this). A late night (11 PM is waaay past my bedtime) was coupled with an early, early morning, but whatevs, I'll still dominate.

By the time it was time for me to race, a small crowd had gathered to watch the guy with the accent silly enough to attempt a decathlon by himself.

100 - Naturally, my start was awesome. Starting by myself is way easier because I can concentrate on starting and not beating the guys either side of me. The last 30m is a bit harder, but I managed a Canadian PB (that's a PB while I've been in Canada, heh). Despite having to wait 10 minutes for a wind indicator be setup, there was no wind reading, but take it from me that there was a headwind: 11.94

LJ - FOUL, 6.22 (-0.6), FOUL. Meh. The two fouls were BIG jumps but I had my foot over the line by a little tiny bit - that's the rules.

SP - Being the only one competing in the event, I had a 4:1 official-to-athlete ratio going on. I must say I quite liked the attention. I can warmup however I like, pretty much whenever I like, and I can be totally relaxed and focussed on the job at hand. My first throw was "like BAM!". I've possibly been saying that too much lately, but it was definitely deserved this time: 9.66, PB by 0.59.

HJ - Training for this event has been going very well, so much so that Coach Duncan was rallying support from the team, to come and watch me PB. I, unfortunately, disappointed my fans: 1.60

Not me, but a wicked photo photo all the same. This is actually my teammate Todd jumping at 1.85m.

400 - Luckily, the individual 400 events were being run at a similar time so I was put in the 6th lane of the last heat: 53.50, Canadian PB.

A solid Day 1 (2887) was wrapped up with a 10 minute ice bath (cold!), a lively meal of chicken parmigiana with the cool kids from the track team, a trip to the nearest sports bar to watch the UFC 100: Canadien Georges St-Pierre dominated his fight with flawless takedowns. Woo!

My arrival at the track was met with a pleasant site: the sky was the same colour as the track - blue, yay! My warmup felt tired and sluggish, but by the time I was ready for hurdles I was feeling good. Clearly, I was feeling very good.

110H - Form over the hurdles was as good as it has been during some training sessions but it was definitely good enough for a 1.26 second PB: 18.57, BAM! ... The 3.2 m/s tailwind may have helped a little...

DT - The situation was the same as discus - a crazy relaxed and focussed warmup followed by success. Coach Eric (sitting down on the right) had a wickedly simple and effective cue for me: "See the front, see the back." The last two warmup throws were in excess of 33m, but I didn't throw that far when it mattered. This experience (and the one from shot put) gave me huge insight into the mindset I should be in when I'm throwing. Another PB, BAM!: 30.66

PV - At this point, I'm 2 for 2 personal bests for the day. I'm not really expecting another until the 1500, but, well, it sorta just happened. BAM!: 3.90

JT - Although, it's beneficial in the physics sense to have a strong headwind when throwing javelin, I'm not really used to it. The result was acceptable : 31.55

1500 - It was me telling everyone there was a PB coming up this time, but it was still me doing the disappointing. I was so sure was going to though... I put in a huge effort, so it wasn't for a lack of trying, but the conditions sucked (lots of wind). The support was amazing. Yelling people lined the track - inside and out. Lockie was running the infield screaming encouragement. I laid everything on the track, but it wasn't good enough for a PB: 4:40.65 (1:11, 1:18.5, 1:19, 0:52)

Day 2: 2534. PB, BAM!
Overall: 5421. PB, BAM!

Maybe it was the numerous personal bests, extremely supportive team, sibling and sibling-in-law or being the centre of attention for practically the entire weekend, but even I'm exhausted but I would totally do that again... BAM!

More Photos From the Decathlon

100 - There were 2 false starts (the first from me), so my start was more tentative then usual. That didn't stop me from moving into the lead at the 40m mark, though, BAM! Finished in an acceptable 11.95 with a 0.4 m/s headwind. (current decathlon PB - 11.58, +1.0)

LJ - I was looking for a PB in this event since the the last competition was 2 cm off and after two 100m races. The first jump was a solid 6.18. This set me up for 2 nothing-to-lose attempts, a foul and a 6.24. (current decathlon PB - 6.32, +2.9)


An amazing takeoff, only to have the official raise the red flag, signaling a foul.


SP - 8.43. Technique was off despite a PB a few weeks ago. If only those legs (as seen in the photo below) could be harnessed! LOL. (current decathlon PB - 8.54)


HJ - During the pre-comp meeting with the official, I asked for the heights to go through 1.66, a 1cm PB. I missed the first attempt at 1.63 but the second was an excellent jump. I couldn't repeat it at 1.66. (current decathlon PB - 1.65)

400 - 1. The lane draw sucked. I got lane 6... of 6. 2. Competitors in lanes 4 & 5 pulled out. 3. One the guys that pulled out false started... Despite this, I managed to stay out in front the entire way. The time so just how out of shape I still am: 53.57 (current decathlon PB - 51.44)

So this was a solid, but not spectacular Day 1. My score at this point was 2837. Current PB is 3030.

110mH - The second attempt at getting 3 strides between hurdles was much more successful than the last - 8 of 9. With this new stride rhythmn it was almost impossible to get a huge new PB - 19.83, +1.0 - previous PB, 21.22.

DT - Argh! The warmup was very good. There was lines marked out at every 10m, so I could easily see that I threw more than 30m during warmups (that would have been a massive dec PB). What happened in the actual competition was a bit unfortunate. The first throw felt a bit off coming out of the back of the circle - foul. The second - foul. I needed to make sure that I got points for this event, so I had to do a standing throw - 25.09 (current decathlon PB - 26.10)

PV - I didn't have access to a stiff enough pole, so I was in the right frame of mind from the beginning. Cleared my starting height of 3.51, but not 3.71. Disappointing. (current decathlon PB - 3.80)

JT - Here I could have easily set a new PB, but I didn't take the time to clear my mind after the pole vault and set up for the next event. I just wasn't feeling it. During the first approach I let my arm drop and the end of the javelin clipped the ground (26-something), on the second I overstrode and fouled the line, the last was a barely acceptable 30.49. (current decathlon PB - 33.22)

1500 - I chose to follow the pack. First lap was done in 71, a little faster than the goal of 76. During the second the athlete leading the pack pulled out, and had I been more experienced in running the 1500 I would have passed and lead out at this point. Instead I needed to heard that the last lap was done in 86. I made my move and finished in a surprisingly easy 4:42.6 (current decathlon PB - 4:39.7)

Due to the massive hurdles PB and unusual (for me) occurence of a decathlon with reasonably solid (for me) results for all the events, I hit a Day 2 PB of 2186 and an overall decathlon PB of 5023 - the first over 5000 points. Woot.

Coming, in 4 weeks time: PBs in LJ, SP, HJ, 110H, DT, JT, 1500 and overall. BAM!

Tim's decathlon

Haven't got time to do a full report of all the butt-kicking Tim did on the weekend at his "practice" decathlon, but here's a teaser: Tim on his way to his first win of the weekend.