Rican Hurdler: A visit to 4th Grade

So on December 11th i was privileged enough to visit a local elementary school in Needham, MA. A good friend of my coach, Mrs. HB :) teaches 4th grade and asked if i would be so kind as to stop by and visit her class. It was to be nothing formal, i didnt have to prepare a speech or come dressed in a suit, but simply show up and answer some questions. Of course i said yes and got excited because i love kids.

Mrs. HBs class had done a project on the Olympics and had learned about many of the different sports and athletes. To their surprise Mrs. HB knew an actual OLYMPIAN!! OMG! so ofcourse they were excited to see me. She wrote a small report on me and talked me up in the weeks prior to my showing up, but she didnt inform them that i would actually be stopping by one day. The day before i was supposed to show up though it slips and so the word gets out that i would be coming to class. You can read about how it "slipped" at her blog

So anyways, we know im not huge superstar (yet) but she talked me up and they were really excited to see me. Sure theyd never heard of me but i was excited to visit them because i remember when i was little i always looked up to the older kids and always enjoyed when i got to meet an elite athlete, so i knew they would enjoy my visiting.

I stopped by with a training partner of mine Shane (muscly-amrs (in my Mr. Herbert from Family guy voice)) and from the moment we walked in the door it was a blast. The kids went crazy! The first thing i heard was HE'S HUGE!! haha which of course made me laugh. I stood at the front of the class with Mr. Muscly arms and we answered questions. A couple minutes into it a second class came in and sat down right in front of me to join in on the fun!

They asked me a wide variety of questions such as How tall are you? how high do you jump? do you know how fast you are? one kid asked me if id met Usain Bolt, and ofcourse i though it was cool that these kids even knew who Bolt was. Track and Field is not a very big sport in the US and to see how these 4th graders knew who Usain Bolt was, was pretty cool. They asked a million and 1 questions, most of which made me laugh.

My favorite question though was "What do you do when youre not training". Now i dont have a part-time job because my coach and I decided that the best way to improve was to go at this Full-Time, so when im not training i usually just sit on the computer, eat, and watch TV. So i told the kids i usually just sit around and eat alot. lol. but that wasnt good enough! So i said ok, ill walk you through my day.

I wake up, i eat breakfast, i sit on the internet.... and one of the kids stops me and says "you dont brush your teeth???" hahha and of course i bust out laughing, she also says "you dont make your bed" another HAHA. so i have to restart while laughing and say OK. I wake up, i brush my teeth, i make my bed, i eat breakfast......etc. I thought that was pretty funny.

The entire time was a good laugh. Kids ask the funniest questions and i had a great time. After the questions were asked i signed about a gazillion autographs. i signed pieces of paper, shoes, hats, teddy bears, you name it! lol

We finished off with a couple videos of me going over hurdles and they were impressed. They all begged me to come back and visit them next year when they are in 5th grade, and i sure wouldnt mind. So Mrs. HB let me know!!

Today Mrs. HB (Stephanie) stopped by the gym where i train and brought Shane and I a delicious Honey Baked Ham as a special thank you for visiting the class. The Ham was given to us maybe 2 hours ago and its just about GONE. I love that Honey Baked Ham!

She also brought in a bunch of pictures that the kids drew for me and Shane saying thank you! Here are a couple!

The first on is of Mrs. HB (Stephanie), Shane (Muscly-arms), and Myself rocking the ballin Gold medal that one of her students made for me. And the second two are beautiful drawings of me going over a hurdle.