Back in NC

I competed at Boston Indoor Games and finished 3rd again behind Trammell and Hicks. I was in 2nd place until i hit hurdles 3 and 4 with my lead leg hamstring. I shoulda have set another PR but instead ran 7.74.

I am now back in Greenville, NC and training at my old university. Last Weekend i ran at UNC and ran a 7.77.

I have no more indoor meets lined up so i am going to start getting ready for outdoors. I plan on my first meet being MT. Sac Relays, but i May jump in the hurdles at Raleigh Relays. It really depends on how my training goes.

The plan for now is to train in Greenville until i gather the funds to head to Raleigh and train with Coach Steve McGill. We got alot of work to do and errors to clean up and the sooner i can move to Raleigh the better.

I also started lifting for the first time this week. Its been over a month since i lifted weights and i could definitely tell. I am surprisingly still pretty strong. I power cleaned 198x2, 220x2, 242x2 but missed 264.

I also lost all the hard earned weight over these past weeks. i was 181 at the begining of the week but i finallyt started eating properly again this week and today weighed in at 183.5. The goal is to get back to 190 and stay there for the entire season. I think gaining the weight should be easier this time because my body has been there before but we'll see.

if anything interesting happens in these next couple weeks ill update the blog. If not ill update befoer my first outdoor race.

O yea. Puerto Rico is excited about the way ive been running but still are not trying to tell me about funding for 2009. Im reaching a point where i may have to pick up a job like i did last January....

Boston Indoor Games Line Up

So the official Line-Up has finally been posted and it is as follows.

Antwon Hicks
USA
Hector Cotto
PUR
Jeff Porter
USA
Aries Merritt
USA
Ron Bramlett
USA
Terrence Trammell
USA
Aubrey Herring
USA
Ryan Fontenot
USA

After my 3rd place finish at Millrose last week i am just looking to improve upon what i did. I have a couple things to work on this week, and if i stick to the game plan things should go well.

Ill be looking to set a new Personal Record. Be sure to tune in to ESPN at 4pm on Sunday to watch the meet.

Back in Boston

A lot has happened since i last posted a blog.

When i last posted, i was leaving Boston. I did leave Boston but decided to run in a meet i entered before i left. That meet was run at Harvard University, i ran 7.95 in the prelims and 7.80 in the finals. I smashed into the 3rd hurdle but my start was pretty good.

They day after the meet i flew down to NC. I stayed one day and then got word that my grandma passed away and her body was being flown from Rochester, NY to Puerto Rico.

My broke behind had no money so a couple family members had to put money together to get me a flight. after spending less than 24hrs in NC i had a flight scheduled to San Juan Puerto Rico.

The funeral was very nice, if you can say that. I am certain my grandma would have been happy to see most of her family show up. My grandma had been sick for years and although i was sad to see her go, i was at the same time happy that she would no longer have to suffer. I did not cry much. Not because i dont miss her, but because i was honestly happy that she could finally rest after 86 years.

The funeral also allowed me to see my mom for the first time in over a year. She is of course still beautiful so i was happy to see that haha. I saw my sister, whom i hadnt seen in over a year as well so i was happy to see her all grown up too :)

They day after the funeral i went and stayed with a teammate Felix Martinez and begun training. My plan was to stay in Puerto Rico until Feb 5th and then fly out to Boston in time for the Indoor Games.

Early in the week though i received an email asking if id like to fly up to NYC to compete in the Millrose Games. Ofcourse my response was yes and so i changed my flight to fly to NYC.

I went and competed and i am happy with the results. I finished 3rd in a time of 7.72 seconds. The race did not go perfect but i was happy to have finished in the medals (which i didnt even know they gave out at Millrose)

I false started for the first time ever in my life. I honestly dont think i false started, but the computer on my blocks showed that i left in a reaction time of .90 which is .10 under the legal limit.

I still got a decent start when we were reset. I felt i ran up on the first hurdle again, but i got back into rhythm sooner than in the past and was able to run a new PR.

I am now back in Boston and will train here until the Boston Indoor Games this weekend and then fly back down to NC.

Leaving Boston

For reasons I will not discuss in this blog, I am leaving the Boston area. I have decided it would be best were I to move and start elsewhere.

Coach and I are still on decent terms (as decent as they can be when his number one athlete gets up and leaves). We did not have some huge argument and cuss each other out, but after speaking about a couple issue over the course of some days, I came to the conclusion that it would be best if I moved on.

This is very hard for me to do, because i saw myself living in Boston for the next 4 or 5 years. I had it all planned out and coach was a part of that plan, but now i feel different. I prayed many nights, that i would be guided in the right direction, and morning after morning i woke up thinking it would probably be best to relocate. So I am doing so. It really is crazy how things can change so drastically in such a short period of time. But that is life.

Id like to thank everyone who helped me over the past year in Boston.

My bff (no homo) Dominik. If you know me, then you know Dominik. He has helped me out more than anyone. Not just this past year, but pretty much since i met him in 8th grade. He is a great friend and proves so everyday.

Id like to thank John and Rebbecca from Excel Sport and Fitness, the Gym i have trained at for the past year. John and Rebbecca have always treated me with the utmost respect and were always very professional. They allowed me to train at their wonderful facility in Waltham, MA for free and anytime i wanted or needed. Often at random hours of the night when the gym was not even open. This would not have been possible at another gym so i thank them.

Thanks to Dave Callum and the entire Greater Boston Track Club. They are a good group of people and i suggest anyone thinking of joining a track club in Boston to join the GBTC. They work hard, love the sport and many of them are good friends outside of the sport as well.

Thanks to Dr. Marchese my Chriopractor over at Marchese Sports Therapy in Woburn, MA. He is the best Dr. Ive ever worked with, he actually "adjusted" my back only 2 or 3 times in the entire year i saw him. He is not the stereotypical crack-your-back chiropractor. He is very knowledgeable in sports injuries and was very important in my staying healthy last year. Without him i would prob have stress fractures in both shins right now.

Marlow and Stephanie. They were my two biggest fans up here lol. They both made things fun and made the sometimes stressful times easy. They are both grown women, but live life to the fullest and find ways to make the best of times. They both workout quite often, and for no reason other than to stay in shape, and run the occasional marathon. I love seeing people who train so hard for the pure joy of it.

Shane (muscly arms/legs). He was my training partner in the gym for the most part. Even though he is a little weak-ass he still helped push my workouts haha. We had some fun times outside of the gym as well, and he is a good friend. He will be starting grad school next Fall, and i hope he chooses a school in NC, which is where i think i will be moving next, so we can continue having good times together.

I have to thank Evan, he introduced me to Carl and also served as training partner during the summer. I never got to hang out with him outside of training, but he was obviously very important to my success in 2008, as he introduced me to Carl.

To all the countless personalities at the gym, Ben, Matt, Tom, Curt and the rest who made training enjoyable.

And of course last but not least to Carl Valle. He invested a lot of time and money into helping me reach my dream of competing at the Olympics last year. There are not many coaches who are as dedicated to helping athletes reach their potential, and i was very fortunate to find Carl.

I have learned lots working with Carl over the past year and i will make sure to put to good use the things i learned. I did not just learn how to run faster and train better, but also learned a lot about the other side of sport, and life in general.

Thanks for everything coach, you are i great guy and i wish you all the best in the future.

I wish everyone the best of luck in the future, I thank them for the good times in Boston.

I will be moving to NC in the next couple days to live with a good friend of mine in Greenville. I was debating on moving to FL to be closer to family or to NC. I decided on NC and Greenville because i can start training immediately. I still plan on running indoors so i must get back on the track as soon as possible.

From Greenville I may move again, and if i do i will update the blog. Until i have made that decision, though, i wil not be updating the blog.

Thanks again to everyone who helped me achieve success over the past year. I will see you all around.