National Junior Disability Championships
Thank you, Kyle Pease Foundation, for being my first ever sponsor for such a great event! On Wednesday July 25th, I got the opportunity to travel to Mesa, Arizona for my last Track Junior Nationals (NJDC) thanks to The Kyle Pease Foundation. I traveled there with my team, the Georgia Blazers, a team with 5 other athletes and two coaches. My team and I went to compete in the 100, 200, 400, and 800 meter races as well as field events consisting of discus, javelin, and shot put. We also had 6 swimmers there before us who competed and got firsts in 30 events out of 34. So already our team was doing great.
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| The squad |
It was Arizona, so it was always hot, but so was the competition! I was kind of nervous at first, but I found out that I was still fast. I've been to about four NJDCs in my life and every year I would come in the top three. So this year I was nervous because the other girls in my events had faster times than me this year.
The first events I did was field. I had to miss shot put because my coach misunderstood something. So I ended up only doing discus and javelin. Well after some issues with equipment, I got all firsts, but no personal records. But I was totally fine with it since field isn't my forte. What I was ready for, was track.
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| Before the Javelin and rocking some KPeasey Blue of course! |
The next day was the first day of track events. It was so hot in AZ that track was during the evening/night, so all day we hung out at the hotel and relaxed by the pool before the first and only event that day, my favorite event, the 100 meter dash. When I got there I started getting nervous, but no one could tell. All the the other girls in that event thought they'd beat me with the times they had this year. Well they sure were in for a shock, and so was I. I ended up getting first place and beating all the girls with a time of 19.54. I was so shocked my self. I had no idea where it came from.
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| Not slowing down for any camera's :) |
The next day was the 200 and 800, the events that I did for my high school team in the spring. I ended up winning both of those out of all the girls in all the wheelchair heats. With times of 2:29 for the 800 and :35 seconds for the 200. Again, I was so shocked! It was so unbelievable. Then the next day we did our last track event, the 400, a one lap sprint. I ended up winning that as well and beating every one with the time of 1:10 seconds.
All in all, I won every event as well as had all season bests. It was great. That week also helped me make a very important decision in my life that will effect my future. I chose to do track and racing in college. I already will be playing wheelchair basketball at the University of Illinois on an athletic scholarship. So now I decided to do both sports and train as much as I can to hopefully make it to the Rio 2012 Paralympics.
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| Was so surprised and happy to receive this! |
The last night, we had a banquet where awards were given out. The Georgia Blazers won the third place for the large teams. This was one of our biggest awards.
I really want to thank The Kyle Pease Foundation for sponsoring me on this trip. It was truly a life changing week that wouldn't have happened without the sponsorship. I also want to thank BlazeSports for all they have done for me in the past years. I am truly blessed. I really can't wait to see what other amazing things happen with Walking with KPeasy and the Foundation.