Haser Happenings: Track Finals

This last week we have all been sick.

I have been so sick! I had a fever all weekend, and somehow it progressed into a sinus/bronchial infection. Absolutely, awful! Ahem, I blame the air quality.

Well, being sick doesn't stop life from happening, so Track Prelims and Finals were still held this week.

I think it is strange how they do Prelims and Finals here.

They do them two days in a row, and there is no limit on the number of events you can be in.

Some events they even have the Prelim and Final in the same day.

By the end of of Finals guaranteed you are pretty sore.

Another odd thing with the kids' school is they don't EVER tell you when and where the events are.

They are never near where we live, so I need plenty of advance warning to get there. Since, I was feeling awful, like death on the day of the prelims and they didn't know where they were going to be held, I missed it.

Prelims started at noon and it was very warm and humid. Logan, apparently, was running a fever. Was really not feeling well, but decided to run the 3000meter that he was entered into anyway. Oh, for added fun he hadn't trained for the 3000. He usually focuses on the 1500 and 800meter races. It was his last Track Prelim/Final for high school, so he figured why not! Krystin was keeping me posted through out the 8 laps. After 2 laps, she told me he looked dead. Now, if he normally looked kind of dead while he ran I wouldn't be very worried. But this kid, will usually finish a 5K in Cross Country with a smile on his face, so that was worrisome. He finished the race, and apparently looked so awful they rushed him to first aid. They took his temp and it was 101.5F (after taking meds an hour and a half before running). I had Krystin get some ice for the back of his neck, and get him some gatorade and water. He bounced back and was ok with in a short time! Phew!

Krystin ran the prelims for the 100 meter and 400 meters, and made it to finals in both! She also took third with her 4x100m relay team (which was a final event!). I should add this event was huge. It included all the international schools from around Hong Kong. There were also kids that were privately trained in the clubs competing. Crazy!

FINALS DAY!

Since, I was dead set on going to finals (even though I felt dead), and the kids were supposed to be to their school at 630am to head over, I told them we could just cab strait to the event. Now that we knew where the event was, because they had been there. Seriously though, they didn't get home until late from Prelims, and would have had to leave the house by 5am to go to finals. Craziness.

Finals were from 8am-5pm.

Krystin's team wanted Krystin to run 6 events, the day after running three. I was like no way! Also, she isn't feeling well either. Hopefully, she isn't getting what I have, but she is coughing. Always fun to race with a cough. Logan only had to run the 1500m. His coach was still worried about him.

Ok. Enough babble. Time for picture overload! YAY!

The Finals (and Prelims) were held at

Stanley Ho Sport Centre (in the University of Hong Kong)

Beautiful little area, nice track. See the tiny stands in the picture, that is where we sat between events.

Don't those cement steps look so comfy?

I asked the kids before we went there if I should bring something to sit on.

They said, "Oh no, there are seats". . .

Hmn, a nice comfy blanky to sit on would have been nice, but it was fine. At least there was shade!

The AIS team warming up!

Yes, that would be my daughter in the cape.

Logan and Krystin showing them how stretches are done.

Ok, this is just random. Logan pointed out to me that there was this water tower right there on the grounds.

Now what he thought was strange is how tiny the door and the passage way up was....

Logan was perplexed.

Ready, set, go!

Krystin's first event was 200 prelims. She wasn't feeling super great and wanted to focus on the 400m finals which was in an hour. So, she decided she would just jog the Prelim and not qualify for the finals.

Top two in each heat (plus time) make it to the finals with a total of 8 qualifying for finals. I believe there were three heats.

She still came in third in her heat, but felt pretty good that she wouldn't qualify for finals.

She was wrong, she qualified by time (while trying not to, it was funny).

Next race was her main event the 400.

I should mention that she did NOT want to run the 400, as she hasn't been training.

I told her she had to run her event, just for the sake of it being her event.

She came in first easily in the prelims...

On to finals.

She had a bad start.

I don't know if she tripped on the starting blocks or what, but it didn't look good.

I believe it threw her off.

The 400 is one lap, in case you don't know.

There really isn't any catch up time.

Krystin was in second still, even with the bad start, but was pretty far behind the first girl.

I have no clue how she did it, but in the last 50 meters she caught the girl.

They crossed the finish line together.

It looked to me (no bias of course) that Krystin crossed first, but it was a photo finish to say the least.

Of course, in this race they weren't using cameras to judge, just the judges human eyes.

They judged that the other girl WON by 0.02 of a second mind you.

(Interestingly, this time is still almost 3.5 seconds slower than Krystin's PR from last year.)

Krystin's coach said they should really have just called it a tie. It was too hard to tell without a photograph, but such is life. It was an amazing race to see. Training or not, Krystin still has amazing Sprinting power.

This pic isn't from the 400 race, but seriously check out how they judge.

All judges are on the left, in the bleachers. They have none on the right.

So, if a runner comes through on the left at the same time, which happened, it is really hard to tell.

After Krystin's 400 race they started having a lady take a picture. If you look closely, she is at the top of the bleachers in this pic, still on the left and she isn't even lined up with the finish line she is at an angle...

LAME SAUCE, I tell ya!

One thing I love about Running.

They have such great sportsmanship.

This is the girl that Krystin ran against in the 400.

They quickly became friends. So cute!

Nice girl, and she really did run a strong race!