NAUCC 06 Racing Results

Written July 5, 2006

Hey, gang!

We're leaving town this afternoon, but first there are a few more races. Most of the remaining ones could be considered somewhat silly (unicycling while juggling, uni'ing on one foot, etc), but there is one more 'track' event that we're definitely doing, the 100m.

Yesterday saw the running of the 400m race and the 1500m and 800m races (the adults do the 1500 and kids under 11 do the 800). In the 400, I came in first in my age group by 13 seconds (a large marge) and qualified easily for the 'expert' heat later on. In the 'expert' heat, inspired by a young man in lane 2, I raced faster than ever before and earned a great time, nearly falling twice before the finish, placing 4th among all competitors.

The 1500m (mile) race is 4x around the track. I elected not to run in the expert heat because it seemed like I'd save some time if I just went in the earlier running of my age group. The upside is that I got to leave a couple minutes earlier after a long day filled with more Maeve-minding than racing. The downside is that I didn't have any competition to inspire me to greater speeds, so my time, while very fast, was slower than some of the times from the expert heat by the guys I usually beat. Still it was 10 seconds better than my previous best, and I was thrilled about that. My new racing-uni has to be partly responsible.

In the 100m race earlier today, I again won my age group easily and made it into the 'expert' heat later on. The track was only 7 lanes wide rather than the usual 8, and because my time was only within the top 6 or 7, I was placed in lane 7, the right-most lane. What often happens in these expert heats is that the racers go all out, as a result of which some of them lean too far forward and fall. As we got to the midway point of the short race, I could tell that I'd be in about 5th place at best, but a few meters later, two riders fell (several lanes apart) including the guy in lane 6. Luckily I was able to ride around his unicycle AND him, because he made no attempt to move either one, and amazingly I finished in 3rd place. I also lowered my time from 16.95 in the earlier heat to 16.72 in the expert heat. It really does help to have faster racers all around you, and I only wish I'd run in the expert heat of the 1500m race as well, because I'm sure I'd have done even better.

Yesterday, Fiona ran the 400 and the 800 with different results. She fell off in the 400, an automatic DQ, but it didn't change her outcome much since she would have been near last place, and in the 800 she was the last to finish in her age group. The nice thing is that she didn't lose her balance in that long race, so now she can compete against her own time in next year's race. Today she managed to stay on for the 100m race, tho again she finished close to the back (one other girl DQ'ed, so Fiona came in 10th or so). I was glad to see that she was upset about losing so badly, and later she said that she would like to do better next year and is willing to put in more practice.

Emmett has nearly mastered the basics, but he just couldn't put together a long enough ride to manage the 100m today (barring miracles). He was a bit disappointed, but he's thrilled about his prospects next year. If only he'd learned to ride just a bit sooner! He was the only one in his age group and could have gone home with all the medals!

Shirra's events, of various distances, consisted of chasing Maeve in a series of 'come back here young lady' races.

After the long day, Fiona, Emmett, and I had a long night. We went to 'flaming puck' hockey, a late-nite game played in parking lots with regular hockey sticks and with (you guessed it) flaming pucks. The pucks are made from steel wool soaked in a flammable mixture. Fiona got to play a few rounds and shrieked when the puck hit her wheel or zoomed right past her a few times. I scored my first flaming puck goal after several years of play. Emmett got to be the puck-boy, shooting in a new puck when the old one had run out of fuel; he also got to hit the puck back into play if it came too close to the side. In all, he got to hit it 7 or 8 times and was ecstatic.