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| Trainer making sure camper touches toe |
Having participated in CG Games Prelims
two years ago, I had no intention of doing so again. Once and done!
Two years ago there were four events to get through, this year five.
I am also two years older and slower. With far less endurance. I had
surprised myself in 2015 by actually finishing the events. The Games
also were after USATF Masters Outdoor Nationals. Not so this year.
What was the chance I would get injured? (Achilles?) Plus, it would
take away from time to train for track. So I was not interested in
doing them again.
Yet, I did. Justification being, well,
I could go to the Saturday training sessions (which did impinge upon
my track training) but that did not mean I would actually do the
Games. I squeezed in track and field practice on Sunday or, once
schools ended for the summer, during the week, even after a morning
CG session. I just reduced the number of iterations or focused on
only one thing while at the track.
I missed one training session while in
South Carolina at a Masters Meet, so at Game time there was one event
I had not done except for portions during CG Camp sessions. I knew
that the Endurance event would be horrid. This one entailed four
approximate 400m runs, two with a 15 pound sandbag, the other two
without the bag. One performed three exercises , the first with 10 iterations, the second 20 iterations and the third 30, followed by a weighted then unweighted run then repeat mat
work and runs. I could not do either weighted or unweighted run
without many walks. The first, or maybe it was the second, time I did
it, it had rained and we had a light drizzle pop up whilst at the
Saturday session. The training took place at a local park and the run
portion was partially along a paved area, a short dirt path and two
wooden bridges. This time I was wearing softball cleats as had been
suggested previously since much of our other run related events were
on grass. Rubber cleats on this day was a bad move! When I hit the
second bridge, I had gone no more than two steps when my feet were
flying forward horizontally, head headed for bridge I hit banging
my head a little then got up. Asked if I was okay by a few ahead of
me, of course I said yeah. But I gingerly proceeded to the end of
the bridge and the next times passing over it, I walked slowly and
held the railing. It was still slippery. Rubber cleats and slippery
wet bridge do not go well together.
So there was that. One other event,
the Agility entailed the icky shuffle (along a ground ladder,
repeating two steps in, one out) and a six inch yellow hurdle to jump
over ten times. I was a disaster at the icky shuffle when I first
encountered it. Want to talk about crone meeting agility?
Coordination not my strength. The brain would not coordinate the
feet. Eventually, I got it (after my trainer patiently went over it
with me and with subsequent practice, initially along with help from
some hard cider and a CG trainer at a CG party, and the rest in my
driveway.) The hurdle petrified me. Several years ago during a
pre-Christmas indoor session, five or six were placed for us to jump
over as we ran forward. Terrible. I hit them, missed, and had a
mental collapse over not being able to pick my feet up enough. So, I
dreaded this portion of the Agility.
The Strength event required initially a
prone position lifting a 15 pound weight alternating arms, twenty
times. The elbows had to go above waist. That was followed by ten,
then eight, then six iterations of pushups followed by raising a 15 pound
sand bell from below chin to above eyebrows. It ended with a repeat
of the alternating arm lifts of weights. I could manage that,
When the Prelims arrived, there was still one event I had not done and that was the Peak. Those of us doing the Prelims arrived July 14th at Durham County Stadium before 06:30. Many were nervous, pacing, worrying, chatting. We were checked in, our contestant number written on our arms, and off to participate in a rah rah group warmup exercises. Some were a bit too exuberant during this, almost knocking one of us off balance. Then, it was off to queue up for the event one wanted to do first. I had two that I knew I would not do well in and wanted to get them over with. I am like that – get the most dreaded thing out of the way first. I chose as my first, the Endurance. There was a very long queue because the event was short a few trainers and some trainers were timing two competitors at once. These folks are so brain adapted, they easily handled tracking two at once with a stop watch in each hand. Actually, quite impressive. For this event, Amy was the trainer with the mis or good fortune to get me.. All trainers were equipped with a thin rod, used to indicate if ones body or appendage (knee for instance) was not high enough (In Strength, the knee had to rise to the level of a cone when doing pushups.) I watched those ahead of me. Some struggled a bit with the second round of mat exercises, some got wiped by the track runs and some had no problem at all.
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| Endurance Event section. Note the sticks. |
I got through the ten sand bell
thrusters, twenty squat jacks, and thirty high plank toe touches
okay, though the thrusters just about wiped me of breath.
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| trainer timig while camper does thrusters |
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| Trainer intent on another trainer's toe taps. Loved watching this! |
Now came
the part I dreaded. I picked up the fifteen pound sand bell and began
my trot. One had to trot from the starting point in any lane all the
way back to the start, drop the sand bell, and trot around again
without the weight. The Endurance event was being held on the far
curve of the track. I barely got a third of the way in front of the
stands before I had to walk. My pals in the stands yelled for me to
move to lane one. So I did. I trotted and walked the rest of the way.
I carried the sand bell behind my neck. When I went to shift it
forward so I could drop it by the start, it slipped from my hands and
hit the ground. Tick tock. But I was not going for time, just
completion. Picking it up, I dragged self back to the start, dropped
it and went out again. The unweighted lap was not as hard but I
still lacked energy. I was using this lap to catch my breath. Back
at the mat I repeated those exercises, willing myself to get through
the thrusters without stop. Finally, the dreaded laps again. They did
not get easier. I finished in 15:40.29.
Next, the Peak event. A fellow Camper,
planning only to do a few events after having had to miss about a
month of Camps, decided she would do it with me. More than she'd
intended. Of course, with our other pal watching, egging us on, this
sort of made it a pseudo challenge. I managed to get Trainer Dea,
the trainer who had herded me two years ago in a similar event.
Though the day was warm, I did not need gloves to keep from burning
my hands. I had to bear crawl, dragging a fifty pound speed sack (a
sack loaded with sand bells) weight to the fifty yard line. I was
beginning to feel my quads go at about thirty yards but got the bag
across the fifty yard line. The return trip consisted of tossing a
15lb sand bell forward then broad (frog) jumping to it, hands
touching ground, followed by dropping chest to bag before progressing
forward. Sort of sucks the air out of one. I had gotten a tip from
a fellow Camper during our Saturday practice times to take short hops
rather than long (like I could broad jump far! NOT!) We had practiced
some but not all the parts of this event.(I could see my fellow
Camper in my periphery vision, ahead) Back at the start it was turn
around and just throw the sand bell to the fifty yard line and back
to the start. So far so good. Still breathing. Now pick the sand
bell up and run to the speed sack at the fifty yard line, turn around
and drag the sack backwards to the thirty-five yard line then run
forward to the start line to finish. (The other Camper and I
finished close to each other. Terrific for her since she was working
her way back to full strength) Amazingly, I was not as winded with
the Peak as I had been with the Endurance event. It took me 8:02
(eight min 2 secs)
The third event I did was the Strength
event, I had done this several times during the Saturday practices,
but I found it tougher this time around. This is where a stick might
be used if one's limb is not high enough. Twenty high plank dumbbell
rows, followed by ten, then eight, then six repeats of hand release
pushups each followed with the same number of sand bell overhead
presses, The last set of overhead presses were tough. The final
plank dumbbell rows were almost a relief! This one took me 2:53.
Three down, two to go. I took some time
to sit and chat with pals before attempting the next event which I
had decided would be the one with the yellow hurdle, the Agility
event. It was a time to watch and cheer on those I knew who were
doing the nearby Endurance, running the track. That was a nice thing
about the Games – so many one knows, in all shapes and conditions,
giving their all to the events they chose to do. One whole group,
from Dea's CG Camp, was there all dressed in blue-purple shirts touting
being from Da Block (Dea's Camp) encouraging each other in each
event; running along with a runner on the track.
Time for Agility. I had been practicing
the icky shuffle in my driveway so thought I could do that and the
running and shuffling okay. I drank some fluid (I accidentally left
the can of BANG! at home. It had BCAA (Branch chain amino acid)
which someone had posted helped recovery. Having looked it up in the
USADA and 411 list, I thought it would be okay. Yep, sure was –
sitting on the counter at home!)
Earlier there had been a hurdle out on
the field to practice with. I had decided to try since I had never
jumped sideways over one and dreaded it. I had the option of stepping
one foot at a time over, which would entail a 30 second time penalty.
That would be okay. Time was not a factor. Coming in last would be
fine – as long as I could do all five events. When my turn came I
decided to try the hopping over the hurdle. What was there to lose?
If I knocked it over, I would just pick it up and do one step at a
time. Agility starts off with a sprint box drill – forward, side
shuffle, run backward, and side shuffle again. Not a problem. Now,
the hurdles! I got all ten hops done. Yippee, Next the icky shuffle
followed by the in and out of the small yellow circle. Run to a
corner cone then back diagonally to repeat the sprint box drill and
done. My time in this one was 1:19.
CG Games Agility Event
CG Games Agility Event
The last event, Interval, was another
one I dreaded. The 70 second time during practice had always found me
way behind the eight ball and walking the last sprints, totally
wiped. In other words – an ugh. One sprints out 15 yards to pick
up a cone, run it back and toss over the start line and, importantly,
touch the start line with your hand before sprinting out to the next
cone (except for the last cone of a set, when one just runs across
the line) . At the 15 yard line there were two rows of four cones.
The object was to grab all four before 70 seconds was up so one had
some rest time because once the time was up, you had to go get the
next set. Each participant had a trainer timing them. Once a set of
cones was completely back, their timer stopped their clock (meanwhile
the master 70 second count kept going. At the end of the 70 seconds
there were three tones then a whistle which started the next 70
seconds. One false start was penalized – two and one was out.) The
next set of cones was at 25 yards out, consisting of two rows of
three cones each. The last set was 35 yards out, two rows of two
cones each.
One really had to conserve energy because that clock
seemed to start up again real fast. By the time the 35 yard sprints
began, not much was left in terms of energy. Somehow, I got through
this without walking once. I was not fast and there was oxygen
deprivation but I got through it. I was very happy that I did not
walk. One factor could be that for two weeks, ending a week and a
half prior, I had been on medication to reduce any lung inflammation
since I had been having trouble running even a block. I also may
have managed my speed better (slower) in the real event than I had in
the practices. My time was 4:36.
I got all five events done in one day.
This I considered the highlight of my year. I had not initially
thought I would get through these, but with the help and support of
others, I did.
I returned the next weekend, July 21. I
was going to take photos and cheer but ended up re-doing three of the
events. Why not? I was there. The weather was cooler (overcast
actually) and sometimes I just like to challenge (punish myself).
This time on the Endurance event, I screwed up some of the mat work –
missing a hand touch on the squat jacks, having to redo, and I messed
up one thruster needing to redo. The horrid runs were a little better
– fewer walks but still slow. This time my time was 15:10. The
repeat of the Strength event was only a little better 2:49 with the
Interval being the best at 4:15. I was not alone in seeing better
times. Many others said their times had substantially improved. Two
years ago, the results were similar for those who came back the next
weekend and repeated. Part of it may be that the fear is gone. One
is familiar with the event and already has a time, so what if
they do worse? They might, however. improve. Which many did.
I mentioned watching folks encourage
each other. I again saw that this second weekend. Matt running and
encouraging Jolene, a mom of a seven month old baby, around the
track. Jolene is typical of a CG Camper. She is dedicated, went to
camp almost up to child birth (crazy folk) and has stuck with it.
Dea's folks chanting and getting their person to the end of their
event. So many of the Campers are happy people. Smiling even after
the worst and always trying to do their best, while supporting those
of us in a lesser category.
Many of our RDU Trainers and Campers
qualified for the Finals in Austin in November. Nationwide, their percentage of qualifiers in relation to relative size is impressive. Last year, they came
in first in several of the team categories and quite a few competing individually were in
the top twenty. As they had the year before. Such drive and
enthusiasm shows. I loved watching the trainers compete! They are such a close group and competitive. Serious stuff. They put so much into it that they are wiped when done. This shot typiffies (at the end of her Endurance event.) I had the luxury of being in the Recovery Boots watching from outside of the field.
In Women Super Masters category, age 50
and above, 434 women nationwide had registered. Of those 434, 245
did some but not all events and 190 did all five events. (what
happened to the rest? Injury, other commitments, weather, or not
enough confidence?) I ranked 105 of the total 245. Shocking,
actually. I was hoping to be next to last and would have been happy
to be last. Really happy that I did better than I expected. Event
and ranking within
Endurance Interval Peak Strength Agility
Louise
Guardino 105 15:10.88 92 04:15.32 93 08:02.40 117 02:49.25
154 01:19.78 169
I strongly doubt I will do CG Games
again, however. Even one year can bring degradation. Besides, I
don't want to be the oldest who ever did them. And, why push one's
luck?
